The decision not to evacuate the Russian Embassy in Kabul after the Taliban (banned in Russia) seized power in Afghanistan was absolutely correct. It enables direct contact with the new country's leadership, Presidential Special Representative for Afghanistan and Director of the Second Asia Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry Zamir Kabulov said on the air of the Russia-24 television channel on Wednesday.
"The events of the last almost four months have shown that the decision was absolutely correct, our embassy is working as usual in almost full staff. The advantage is that our embassy has the opportunity to communicate directly with the new leaders of Afghanistan, to convey to them our, as we say, concerns, to get answers," he said.
"If you are talking about the security of our diplomatic mission, it is fully ensured and local authorities pay a lot of attention to that. And this applies not only to the Russian embassy, it applies to the embassies of six or seven other states that are functioning: Chinese, Pakistani, and Iranian embassies," the diplomat added.
He also said that a number of countries are preparing to renew the work of their diplomatic missions in Afghanistan, including Germany.
"A number of other countries are on the verge of reopening their embassies there, as they call it. As far as we know, we hear that Germany, which has already appointed an ambassador there, is also looking at how to reopen its mission. The UAE has officially announced the resumption of its activities," Kabulov said.
The presidential special representative described the process as the right one. "All states that are more or less concerned about the situation in Afghanistan should have their diplomatic representations in place to talk directly to the leadership of Afghanistan," he explained.
Situation in the republic
The diplomat also said that the military and political situation in Afghanistan is relatively stable, but the fight against IS (the Islamic State terrorist group banned in the Russian Federation) continues.
"The military-political situation <...> in Afghanistan is relatively stable, if we don't take into account the fact that the force units of the provisional government of Afghanistan are actively fighting against ISIS (former name of IS) in different parts of the country," he said.
Kabulov noted that the Taliban continues to suffer losses in the fight against IS. "The lack of sufficient budgets, unfortunately, weakens the Taliban's counterterrorism capabilities, which also raises questions, primarily directed at their Western counterparts. Are they not interested that ISIS, which they are now loudly talking about as a common global threat, should be destroyed, eradicated in Afghanistan?" added the special representative of the Russian President for Afghanistan.
Earlier on Tuesday, Aamaj News reported on clashes between the Taliban and ISIS in Jalalabad. The agency reported that the fighting, which was fierce, began on Tuesday night and continued into the morning, the sides used different kinds of weapons.
During the last three months, a number of explosions, armed attacks and shootings took place in several provinces of Afghanistan, including the capital region, with both Taliban and locals as victims. The Islamic State in Khorasan, an offshoot of IS, has claimed responsibility for some of these incidents.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Press Service of the Russian Foreign Ministry / TASS
Based on materials from TASS