ISLAMABAD – Afghan Taliban in a strategic move have reached Moscow with anapproach to Russian President Vladimir Putin against Washington dead talksthreat.
Taliban negotiators from the militant group’s Qatar office is in Moscow fortalks with Russian officials, just days after U.S. President Donald Trumpannounced that peace talks with U.S. officials have collapsed.
TASS quotes Mohammad Sohail Shaheen, the spokesman for the Taliban’s Qataroffice, as saying that the Taliban delegation had met with Russia’s specialenvoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, on September 13.
RFE/RL has independently confirmed that the Taliban delegation was inMoscow on September 13.
Shaheen was quoted by TASS as saying that the Taliban’s talks with RussianPresident Vladimir Putin’s special envoy had focused on “the recentdevelopments regarding the peace process in Afghanistan.”
Moscow has hosted two previous rounds of talks in 2019 between Talibannegotiators and prominent Afghan personalities.
The September 13 meeting in Moscow marks the first international visit bymembers of the Taliban’s Qatar office since Trump on September 9 declaredthat peace talks with U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad were “dead.”
Earlier, Trump cancelled a secret meeting with Taliban negotiators that hadbeen scheduled at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.