Moscow has warned the Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia) against monopolizing power in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper.
“We have made it clear to the members of the Taliban that we oppose their attempts to monopolize power,” he emphasized.
According to Lavrov, concerns about the possibility of the Taliban seizing the power come, first and foremost, from Western observers. “However, first, the Taliban themselves have denied such intentions and second, there are Afghan political forces that clearly will not support the Taliban’s forceful takeover of power,” the Russian top diplomat emphasized.
On April 14, US President Joe Biden announced plans to start the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in May and complete the process by September 11, yet the former Trump administration had signed an agreement with the Taliban in Doha in February 2020, which said that US and allied troops were to leave the country by May 1, 2021. The Taliban strongly condemned this departure from the agreement, actually making it clear that they considered themselves no longer bound by the obligations under the Doha deal.
However, eight security force members were freed from a Taliban prison in an operation in northern Baghlan on Sunday night, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said in a statement on Monday.
The operation was launched in Amarkhil village of Baghlan-e-Jadid and the security force members who had been taken captive were released, it said.
In the meantime, a security source said that two security forces members were killed, and another was wounded during the operation.
The MoD did not comment on the possible casualties of the security forces during the operation.
The Taliban has not yet commented over the operation.
