Russia Backs Taliban’s Call for Withdrawal of Foreign Forces

Russia backs Taliban’s call for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan and criticizes agreements that allowed U.S. and NATO forces to remain in nine military bases in Afghanistan.

It has been reported that President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov during an interview with Bloomberg has said that “of course it’s justified” for the Taliban to oppose the foreign military presence.

Kabulov further added,” who’s in favor? Name me one neighboring state that supports it.”

Moscow will host a consultation meeting on Afghan peace process in mid-April, but the United States has refused to join the meeting.

The Afghan government backed by the U.S. and its allies is also consulting its participation and the level of the representatives.

“Russia is planning to revitalize unusable figures of the Taliban and use them against the United States,” Aziz Rafiee, managing director of the Afghan civil society forum said.

But Russia has denied any attempt to strengthen the Taliban group, saying the contacts aimed to push the militant group toward national reconciliation to ensure the security of Russian citizens.

By: Bais Hayat & Hesamuddin Hesam