A verbal clash broke out between former vice president Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum and the Taliban’s Mullah Fazel, who represents the groups in the peace negotiations, on the sidelines of the Moscow conference on Thursday. 

Fazil was the Taliban’s designated chief of army staff during their regime in Kabul and the two know each other from the mid-1990s. He and played a key role in defeating Dostum forces in the north of Afghanistan. 

Dostum’s forces and forces loyal to Mullah Fazil had a series of deadly battles in northern Afghanistan when the Taliban was in power in Afghanistan. After the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, Fazil surrendered to Dostum’s forces, but later on, Dostum handed him to American forces. He was then transferred to Guantanamo where he remained for many years. 

Reports say that the Taliban strongly reacted after Dostum tried to enter the conference hall with his military uniform. 

Reports also say that later on even Dostum entered the hall without a military uniform, but a verbal clash broke out between the two longtime foes. 

According to reports, the verbal clash broke out when Dostum put his hand on Mullah Fazil’s shoulder to inquire about his health, but Fazil removed Dostum’s hand from his shoulder and called him a “traitor” and a “killer.” 

“Meetings sometimes see some bitter as well as good moments, but I want to say that if someone wants to move towards peace, they should have the ability to tolerate each other,” the Afghan Republic’s chief negotiator Masoom Stanekzai said. 

It is said that Dostum left the room after the verbal clash and later on left Moscow to Tashkent a day ahead of other delegates. 

“As it is witnessed, this group is still insisting on its own views and ideology, but we remain optimistic that the Istanbul conference will prove more helpful than Moscow meeting,” Dostum’s spokesman Ehsan Nairo said.