ST. PETERSBURG, September 6. /TASS/. Moscow calls on the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) to form an inclusive government, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.

"All we want - we call on our Afghan neighbors to make the process [of forming the government] all-embracing. And the Taliban, who came to power after President [Ashraf] Ghani fled the country, have declared that they will form such a government. We encourage them to do it. I hope they will," he said, adding that the final decision on this process should be up to the Afghan people.

After the Biden administration announced the end of its US military operation in Afghanistan and the launch of its troop pullout, the Taliban embarked on an offensive against Afghan government forces. On August 15, Taliban fighters swept into Kabul without encountering any resistance and gained full control over the Afghan capital within a few hours. Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani said he had stepped down to prevent any bloodshed and subsequently fled the country. Vice President Amrullah Saleh said that under the constitution, he becomes "the caretaker president" in the absence of the president and called for armed resistance against the Taliban.

The northern province of Panjshir is the only pocket of resistance to the Taliban. It is led by Ahmad Massoud, a son of Ahmad Shah Massoud (1953-2001), a once influential leader of Afghanistan’s Tajik community who fought against the Taliban back in the 1990s.