Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a press conference m with his Afghan counterpart Mohammad Haneef Atmar in Moscow on Friday said the Taliban should enter meaningful talks and should reduce violence significantly.
He added that the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating and that the violence has to stop as soon as possible.
Lavrov said that Moscow was in contact with other countries involved in Afghanistan. He stated that the Taliban should avoid putting new demands in the talks.
“Our main message to the Taliban is to resume meaningful dialogue as soon as possible, avoid further escalation of violence to reach to a conclusion and respect the decisions of the UN Security Council,” Lavrov said.
Atmar says that his Russian counterpart has agreed that the return of the Taliban’s regime is unacceptable and that the group should resume meaningful talks and reduce violence significantly.
“We welcome Russia’s position. The Taliban shouldn’t be removed from the sanctions list unless they abide by their commitments toward peace,” Atmar said at the event.
On Thursday, National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib briefed the UN Security Council’s 1988 Sanctions Committee, which oversees the implementation of UN sanctions on the Taliban and said that Afghanistan and the UN are working together on the imposition of sanctions on the Taliban through which they seek to reduce further violence by the group.
“The NSA said UN sanctions are important in enforcing conditionality on the Taliban, which has used unprecedented violence against Afghan state and society, abused the privilege of travel exemptions to dodge talks, and broken promises not to enlist released convicts for terrorism,” Mohib said.
"Afghanistan will work with all our key partners and Security Council members to ensure that sanctions tools are used for their intended purpose of supporting peace by helping Afghanistan encourage peaceful behavior and deter violent activity by the Taliban,” he said.
This comes as the Afghan Republic and the Taliban negotiators held their third meeting on Thursday evening after over a month-long deadlock in the talks with the main focus on the agenda of the negotiators, officials said.
The meeting was held in working group level that is aimed at finalizing the agenda of the negotiations.