Taliban delegation meets Russian special envoy in Moscow

MOSCOW: A Taliban delegation has met Russian special envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, in Moscow after suspension of talks with the United States (US), confirmed Foreign Ministry.

“The Russian president’s special representative for Afghanistan … Zamir Kabulov, hosted a Taliban delegation in Moscow,” said a ministry spokesman, quoted by RIA Novosti state-funded news agency.

“The Russian side stressed the need to relaunch negotiations between the United States and the Taliban movement,” the spokesman said.

“For their part, the Taliban confirmed their willingness to pursue dialogue with Washington.”

Taliban’s chief negotiator Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai said that the militant group is ready to resume talks with the US and expressed hopes that President Donald Trump will consider to review his announcement for the suspension of dialogues.

Earlier on September 10, US President Donald Trump proclaimed talks with Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders dead on Monday.

Trump scrapped talks with the Taliban planned for Camp David, Maryland, over the weekend after an American soldier was killed by a suicide bomber in the capital Kabul last week.

“They’re dead. They’re dead. As far as I’m concerned, they’re dead,” Trump told reporters when asked about the talks as he left the White House for a trip to North Carolina.

A draft accord agreed last week would have seen about 5,000 American troops withdrawn over coming months in exchange for guarantees that Afghanistan would not be used as a base for attacks on the United States or its allies.

Bringing US troops home from Afghanistan has been one of Trump’s main foreign policy objectives, and the Republican president said his administration was still thinking about a drawdown of the 14,000 US soldiers in the country.

The growing tension on the ground in Afghanistan adds to the uncertainty about the future course for American forces, many of whom must now simultaneously brace for an increase in fighting while also awaiting potential orders to withdraw.