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Taliban to not participate in Moscow format meeting on Afghanistan — diplomat

The next meeting of the Moscow format of consultations on Afghanistan is scheduled for mid-November

MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/. A delegation of Afghanistan’s interim government formed by the radical Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia) will not participate in a meeting of the Moscow format of consultations, Special Russian Presidential Representative for Afghanistan, Director of the Foreign Ministry’s Second Asian Department Zamir Kabulov told TASS on Thursday.

"The Taliban delegation will not take part [in the meeting], it is only for members of the Moscow format," he said, answering a corresponding question.

As Kabulov previously said in an article published in Nezavisimaya Gazeta, the next meeting of the Moscow format of consultations on Afghanistan (Russia, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) is scheduled for mid-November. The previous meeting was held on October 20 last year. It was attended by a Taliban delegation headed by Abdul Salam Hanafi, deputy prime minister of Afghanistan’s interim government.

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