Foreign Ministry says Russia shares common interest with Taliban

Russia shares a common interest with the Taliban to fight the Islamic State in Afghanistan, said the Russian Presidential Envoy to Afghanistan and Second Asia Department Head at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zamir Kabulov.

“I already said earlier that we have channels to exchange information with the Taliban,” said Kabulov.

At the same time, Kabulov recently said discussions were underway with the officially recognized Afghan government on buying arms from Russia.

Russia is prepared to send arms shipments to the official Afghan government. “[Russia] will do so with extreme care and fundamentally on a commercial basis,” said Kabulov.

• The Islamic State, or ISIL, is considered a terrorist organization in Russia.
• The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. After the September 2011 terrorist attacks, an international coalition removed the Taliban from power. Russia did not participate directly in the coalition, but at certain stages did grant its airspace for the transport of coalition supplies to Afghanistan.
• In 2003, the UN Security Council recognized the Taliban as a terrorist organization.
• Since September 2015, the Russian Air Force has been conducting operations in Syria against various terrorist positions, first in priority being those of the Islamic State, says the Russian Defense Ministry.
• Syrian rebels and Western countries, however, believe the Russian Air Force is striking blows not only against terrorists like the Islamic State, but also at opponents of the regime of Bashar al-Assad