MOSCOW, July 8./TASS/. The Taliban (outlawed in Russia) is not going to attack foreign diplomatic missions in Afghanistan and confirms the safety of the Russian Consulate General’s staff, Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Taliban’s political office told TASS on Thursday.

"We have very good relations with them, with Russia. We are not going to attack, why we should attack, when we have good relations with them?" he said when asked whether the Taliban was ready to guarantee the safety of the consulate’s diplomats in Mazar-e-Sharif. "We said publicly that we are not targeting embassies and consulates all over Afghanistan, particularly of Russia and other countries," he stressed.

Russia’s Consulate General in the Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif has temporarily halted its operations because of the worsening situation in northern Afghanistan, Russian Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan and Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Second Asian Department Zamir Kabulov told TASS on Monday.

"The situation in unstable, the Afghan troops have surrendered too many districts. Naturally, that triggers anxiety. So, many consulates [of other countries in Mazar-e-Sharif] have temporarily suspended their work pending clarification of the situation," he emphasized.