Kremlin representative: Russia and Taliban have joint interest

Baku. 24 December. REPORT.AZ/ 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, Report informs referring to the BBC, 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, said. 

“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.