Fight Against IS: Russia, Taliban ‘have joint interest’

“Both the Taliban of Afghanistan and the Taliban of Pakistan have said that they don’t recognise IS leader as a caliph

MOSCOW: Russia is exchanging information with the Taliban and sees shared interest with the insurgents when it comes to counteracting the spread of the Islamic State group, a senior Russian diplomat said on Wednesday. “Taliban interests objectively coincide with ours,” Zamir Kabulov, head of the department at the Russian foreign ministry responsible for Afghanistan who is also a Kremlin special representative in the country, told Interfax news agency. “I have said before that we have communication channels with the Taliban to exchange information,” he added. “Both the Taliban of Afghanistan and the Taliban of Pakistan have said that they don’t recognise [IS leader Abu Bakr] al Baghdadi as a caliph, that they don’t recognise ISIL,” he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2015.