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Taliban advisor welcomes progress in relations between Kabul, Moscow

Russia’s possible move to exclude the Taliban from its list of terrorist organizations will remove obstacles to the establishment of official relations between Kabul and Moscow, Zakir Jalali, an advisor to the Taliban Foreign Ministry, said

ISLAMABAD, May 29. /TASS/. Moscow’s possible move to exclude the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) from its list of terrorist organizations will remove obstacles to the establishment of official relations between Kabul and Moscow, Zakir Jalali, an advisor to the Taliban Foreign Ministry, said.

"The above-mentioned decision by the Russian [leadership] undoubtedly means the removal of obstacles to [the establishment of] official relations between Afghanistan and Russia. Despite these obstacles, Afghanistan and Russia achieved significant progress in bilateral relations in the past three years," he wrote on the X social media platform.

Jalali specified that the parties had exchanged visits at various levels; in particular, a delegation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban’s name for the country - TASS) had taken part in most of the Moscow format meetings on an intra-Afghan settlement.

The advisor noted that Afghan officials had also participated in the Russia - Islamic World: KazanForum in Tatarstan. Jalali confirmed that the Taliban had been invited to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), scheduled for June.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on May 27 that the initiative to remove the Taliban from the list of terrorist organizations "reflects awareness of reality." Zamir Kabulov, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Second Asian Department, told TASS earlier that Russia’s Foreign Ministry and Justice Ministry had reported to President Vladimir Putin that the Taliban could be removed from the list of banned organizations. Kabulov added that Moscow had invited the Taliban to take part in the St. Petersburg forum.

On May 28, Putin emphasized the need to build relations with the Taliban as they are in power in Afghanistan.

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