Taliban delegation meets Russian diplomat in Moscow

Moscow: A Taliban delegation held talks with Russian special envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, in Moscow to discuss the recent developments on the Afghan peace process.

"The delegation is in Moscow. We have already met Z. Kabulov, special envoy for Afghanistan, to discuss with him the recent developments regarding the peace process in Afghanistan," TASS news agency quoted Mohammad Sohail Shaheen, spokesman for the Taliban which is outlawed in Russia, as saying.

Russia believes that talks between the US and Taliban should be resumed. During the talks in Moscow, the Taliban delegation said that it was ready to continue dialogue with Washington, a spokesman for the Russian foreign ministry told TASS on Friday.

"The Russia side stressed the necessity of the resumption of talks between the United States and the Taliban movement. Taliban, in turn, reiterated its readiness to continue dialogue with Washington," the spokesman said.

This comes as the US President Donald Trump called off negotiations with the Taliban in which the two sides finalised an agreement in principle which would have paved the ground for a gradual withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.

Trump tweeted last week that following the terror attack in Kabul he had cancelled his "secret" meetings with the Taliban leaders and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani originally planned to be held in Camp David on September 8.

Apart from that, Trump refused to take part in peace settlement talks.