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Russia poised to aid implementation of agreement between US and Taliban — top diplomat

According to the foreign minister, to overcome the crisis it is necessary that Washington return to cooperation with the region’s states on Afghan regulation

© AP Photo/David Goldman, File

MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/. Russia is ready to aid the implementation of the peace agreement between the US and the Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia), Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday following the videoconference of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) foreign ministers.

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"We are not happy about the fact that currently, the agreements reached by the US and the Taliban are stalling. We see the reasons why it is happening and we are ready to help them overcome those issues," he said.

According to the minister, to overcome the crisis it is necessary that Washington return to cooperation with the region’s states on Afghan regulation.

Lavrov expressed hope that the SCO can make a constructive contribution to overcoming the existing standstill. The minister informed that during today’s meeting, the SCO foreign ministers agreed to modernize a roadmap for further actions of the SCO-Afghanistan contact group taking into account the situation after the signing of the US-Taliban agreement.

On February 29, the United States and the Taliban inked a peace agreement in Doha. Under the deal, intra-Afghan consultations were to begin on March 10. It stipulated that up to 5,000 Taliban supporters and up to 1,000 people held by extremists should be released as part of confidence-building measures by the beginning of intra-Afghan negotiations.

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