MOSCOW, October 25. /TASS/. Having swept into power in Afghanistan, the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) may think about selling weapons abandoned by the United States and its NATO allies in the country if humanitarian situation takes a serious turn for the worse, Special Russian Presidential Representative for Afghanistan and Director of the Foreign Ministry’s Second Asian Department Zamir Kabulov said on Monday.
"A very dangerous aspect is that we all know about the large number of weapons, which the Americans and generally NATO forces have left behind in Afghanistan. That said, there are no signs, so these are purely my conjectures but, based on logic, just imagine that instead of state structures, terrorist groups interested in buying these weapons, begin turning to the Taliban. This may prompt the Taliban to start thinking about that if they are left without any means to keep the country alive," the Russian envoy forecasted.
In this situation, if the West decided "to stifle" Afghanistan "with the gaunt hand of hunger" under the new authorities, "this would yield a completely counter-productive result," Kabulov said.
The Taliban radical militant group (outlawed in Russia) launched a large-scale offensive to seize control of Afghanistan after the United States declared its intention in the spring of this year to withdraw its troops from the country.
On August 15, the Taliban swept into Kabul without encountering any resistance while Afghan President Ashraf Ghani stepped down and fled the country. The Taliban declared on September 6 that they had taken control of all of Afghan territory, and on September 7 they unveiled an interim government in Afghanistan that has not been recognized by any country so far.