Now Putin Is Being Asked to Bring Peace to Afghanistan

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Now Putin Is Being Asked to Bring Peace to Afghanistan
Henry Meyer @meyerhenry4 More stories by Henry Meyer
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November 23, 2017, 5:16 AM CST Updated on November 23, 2017, 7:56 AM CST

    Inquiry needed into whether Russia is arming group, Atmar says

    Security chief urges U.S., Russia to renew weapons cooperation

Russia must press the Taliban to enter peace talks in Afghanistan, while an international inquiry should establish whether the Kremlin is arming the insurgent group, according to a senior Afghan official.

Russia has “a significant role” in bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table, Afghan National Security Adviser Mohammad Haneef Atmar told reporters in Moscow on Thursday. He said he told Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev that “if you have contacts with the Taliban, please use these contacts for promotion of peace talks. The Taliban should not be able to use such contacts for war.”

U.S. accusations that Russia may be sending weapons and other supplies to the Taliban are “the most sensitive issue,” though Afghan officials have no evidence it’s happening, Atmar said. Unproven claims of U.S. help for Islamic State should also be checked, he said. The government in Kabul has proposed to “Russia, central Asia and our Western partners that we have a joint fact-finding mission to investigate, to see if there is any truth in such allegations,” Atmar said.

Read more at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-23/russia-must-pressure-taliban-to-seek-peace-afghanistan-says