The Taliban Is Invited to Moscow

Oct. 7. 2021 (EIRNS)—Zamir Kabulov, director of the Asian Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry, on Thursday stated that the Taliban has been invited to Moscow. Kabulov is President Putin’s special envoy to Afghanistan. In July, spokeswoman Maria Zakarova indicated the thinking about the Taliban, officially banned in Russia as a terrorist organization: “There is a small and important nuance. The Taliban movement is part of the Intra-Afghan dialogue. This is the very dialogue that the [UN] Security Council has called on all countries to facilitate.” The Taliban delegation now is being welcomed as part of that necessary dialogue for Afghanistan. On his part, Kabulov had indicated in August that, in his view, the Taliban could be dealt with: “If we compare how easy it is to negotiate as colleagues and partners, then the Taliban have seemed to me for a long time more prepared for negotiations than the puppet government was.” The former government was “doubtfully elected” and had “ruled badly and ended shamefully.”