Lavrov opens Moscow Summit, says Afghan conflict is fueling extremism

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov officially opened Thursday’s landmark peace summit in Moscow which has brought together representatives of the Afghan Republic and the Taliban, along with other key stakeholders, in a concerted push by the foreign community to accelerate the peace process.

Addressing the opening of the meeting Lavrov said insecurity in Afghanistan is fueling the rise of extremist groups, including ISIS.

He said this will threaten the region and increase terrorism and in turn called on the United States and the Taliban to stick to commitments sealed in the Doha Agreement signed in February last year.

Lavrov said the Doha process has not yielded positive results for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan but that Russia expects progress at the Moscow meeting. “At the same time, we are seeing the situation (conflict) get worse,” he said.

Lavrov said Russia is particularly concerned about the fact that conflict traditionally intensifies in spring and summer in Afghanistan. “We see that both sides of the war are endangering the civilian population.”

Also attending the meeting is US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad, who said earlier Thursday that the Doha talks have for now been pushed to one side.

Delegates from Pakistan, China, Iran, Turkey and Qatar are also in attendance, while Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan’s chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation is leading the Afghan Republic’s 12-member team.

This team includes only one woman, Habiba Sarabi.

In a tweet Thursday afternoon, one of the Republic’s delegates Nader Nadery stated he hoped an “equal number of women on tables should become the norm.”

While Afghanistan has one woman present, the Taliban was devoid of any female representation.

The Moscow meeting is one of two that have been scheduled over the next few weeks – the other planned for Turkey next month and comes amid a new push by the US to get the two warring sides to find a political solution to the 20-year old war.