Moscow admitted the possibility of cooperation with the Taliban to fight against ISIS in Afghanistan. This was stated by Zamir Kabulov, the Russian presidential envoy to Afghanistan. He said Russia could revise its attitude towards the Taliban after its leaders made a deal with the authorities in Kabul on the joint fight against terrorists.
As for the upcoming negotiations on the situation in Afghanistan, the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country will be the highlight.
Zamir Kabulov, MFA: "We support this process because it's crucial. Without cooperation between the USA and the Taliban, it'll be quite difficult to settle the issue and take further steps in Afghanistan. That's why we should see how it works. We're ready to support, in this case, more the Afghan people rather than my colleague Zalmay Khalilzad, because they want peace. The meeting in Moscow only proved strongly once more that the Afghan people strive for peace and want to build a good, independent, self-sustainable state. The Afghan political leaders who were in Moscow on the 5th and 6th of February said that they don't want any foreign troops to be there. Indeed, there's the concern that a rapid withdrawal of your troops might create a vacuum, danger. But can we talk about a vacuum? There are 14,000 troops at military bases. The only war there is your air force attacking the Taliban. If the troops return home it can't create any vacuum. The only vacuum will be at the bases, but so it goes. There won't be any vacuum in Afghanistan".
