Russia Calls for Removal of Taliban From UN Blacklist

The Russian Embassy in Kabul says Moscow considers the Afghan Taliban as a “political force” and that ready to remove the armed group’s name from its own blacklist.

Describing the Afghan government as “Kabul State”, the Russian deputy ambassador to Afghanistan Albert Khorev on Thursday criticized the Afghan government leaders’ stand against the recent Moscow talks.

 “Kabul State – instead of positively evaluating the approaches of Russia and the United States and the reconciliation initiatives of these two countries –  has protested and moved away from the issues, which surprised us,” Khorev said.

The deputy Russian envoy also said that Russia considers the Afghan Taliban as a political force and that now it is the time to remove the armed group’s name from the UN blacklist.

Khorev stressed that if the UN removed the Taliban from its blacklist, his country would also be ready to clear the Taliban from its own blacklist.

However, the Afghan government has strongly reacted to Russia’s recent presumption about the Taliban.

Nasir Ahmad Andesha, the deputy minister of Foreign affairs Ministry said that Russia should avoid using the term “Kabul State” instead of Afghanistan State, adding the armed oppositions are calling the Afghan government as Kabul government and that they don’t expect Russia to move forward using the same term.

It comes as Russia on February 05 hosted a tw0-day meeting between the Taliban and Afghan politicians in Moscow where the delegates issued a joint declaration outlining a nine-point approach to promote intra-Afghan dialogue to reach into a political settlement in Afghanistan. 

In reaction, the Afghan government said that the meeting was not about peace talks but it was a “political and academic debate” on peace and that the declaration issued at the end of the meeting was the summary of the talks and has no “executive” outcome on the peace process.