The inter-Afghan negotiations have not yet been fully launched, so the question of lifting the UN Security Council sanctions against the Taliban (banned in Russia) is not yet on the agenda. This was stated by Zamir Kabulov, Special Representative of the Russian President for Afghanistan and Director of the Second Asian Department of the Foreign Ministry, in an interview with TASS, timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Friendship between Russia and Afghanistan.
"So far, the contacts between the delegations of official Kabul and the Taliban movement are preparatory in nature, they are not the beginning of substantive inter-Afghan negotiations. The negotiation process in this sense has not been started yet; that's why we consider it premature to discuss the issue of lifting the UN sanctions against Taliban", said the Special Representative of the Russian President.
He also underscored that the Taliban demonstrate an interest in keeping the agreements reached with the US on the restoration of peace in Afghanistan. "Recently, the leadership of Taliban movement issued a resolution prohibiting all field commanders to accept foreign fighters and keep them in their units under the threat of court-martial. We consider this fact to be the confirmation of the Taliban's interest in keeping the deal with the United States and their readiness to comply with it," Kabulov noted.
Along with this, he stated that the number of fighters of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan ( banned in Russia) which the Taliban have undertaken to break off completely their relations with Washington, is not considered in comparison with other terrorist groups, first of all, IS ( the terrorist group Islamic State banned in Russia).
On February 29, 2020, the previous US leadership and the Taliban signed a peace agreement in Doha. According to the agreements, the United States, its allies and the coalition undertook to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan within 14 months. The Taliban, in turn, guaranteed that they would not use Afghan territory for actions that threaten the security of the United States and its allies.
Delegations from the Afghan authorities and the Taliban have been engaged in a dialogue in Doha since September 12 last year to restore peace in Afghanistan. The sides agreed in early December that they would take a break from December 12 until January 5. The dialogue has been stagnant of late, not meeting for a long time and resuming only a few days ago.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Alexander Shcherbak / TASS
Based on materials from TASS