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Published: 16:37, July 09, 2021 | Updated: 18:03, July 09, 2021
Taliban say they control 85% of Afghan territory, reassure Russia
By Agencies
Published:16:37, July 09, 2021 Updated:18:03, July 09, 2021 By Agencies

Taliban negotiators Abdul Latif Mansoor (left), Shahabuddin Delawar (center) and Suhail Shaheen attend a press conference in Moscow, Russia, on July 9, 2021. (DIMITAR DILKOFF / AFP)

MOSCOW - A Taliban delegation in Moscow said on Friday that the group controlled over 85 percent of territory in Afghanistan and reassured Russia it would not allow the country to be used as a platform to attack others.

Foreign forces, including the United States, are withdrawing after almost 20 years of fighting, a move that has emboldened Taliban insurgents to try to gain fresh territory in Afghanistan.

That has prompted hundreds of Afghan security personnel and refugees to flee across the border into neighboring Tajikistan and raised fears in Moscow and other capitals that Islamist extremists could infiltrate Central Asia, a region Russia views as its backyard.

The Taliban pledged to respect Afghanistan’s borders with neighboring Central Asian states at talks in Moscow, Russia's foreign ministry said

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At a news conference in Moscow on Friday, three Taliban representatives, however, sought to signal that they did not pose a threat to the wider region.

The representatives said the Taliban would do all it could to prevent Islamic State operating on Afghan territory and that it would also seek to wipe out drug production.

"We will take all measures so that Islamic State will not operate on Afghan territory... and our territory will never be used against our neighbors," Shahabuddin Delawar, one of the representatives, said through a translator.

The same delegation said a day earlier that the group would not attack the Tajik-Afghan border, the fate of which is in focus in Russia and Central Asia.

Moscow has noted a sharp increase in tensions on the same border, two thirds of which the Taliban currently control, the Interfax news agency cited Russia's foreign ministry as saying on Friday.

The ministry called on all sides of the Afghanistan conflict to show restraint and said that Russia and the Moscow-led CSTO military bloc would act decisively to prevent aggression on the border if necessary, RIA reported.

We will take all measures so that Islamic State will not operate on Afghan territory... and our territory will never be used against our neighbors.

Shahabuddin Delawar, a Taliban representative

The Taliban pledged to respect Afghanistan’s borders with neighboring Central Asian states at talks in Moscow, the ministry said.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Zamir Kabulov, who is the Kremlin’s special envoy for Afghanistan, met with a delegation from the Islamist movement’s political office on Thursday, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

“The Russian side expressed concern about the escalating tensions in northern areas of Afghanistan and called for not allowing this to spread outside the country,” reads the statement.

“The Taliban pledged not to violate the borders of Central Asian states,” the statement added.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday pledged to help Tajik authorities deal with the increased fighting in the border area and also held phone talks with the leader of Uzbekistan about the worsening situation. At least 1,000 Afghan troops have fled to Tajikistan, which has mobilized an extra 20,000 troops to guard its frontier with Afghanistan. Russia has a major military base in Tajikistan.

Meanwhile, the Taliban delegation said at Friday's news conference that the group would respect the rights of ethnic minorities and all Afghan citizens should have the right to a decent education in the framework of Islamic law and Afghan traditions.

"We want all representatives of Afghan society ... to take part in creating an Afghan state," said Delawar.


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