Continuing Military Standoff In Afghanistan May Underline Peace Dialogue - Moscow

Afghan peace talks could be hampered by the continuing military confrontation in the crisis-torn country, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th March, 2019) Afghan peace talks could be hampered by the continuing military confrontation in the crisis-torn country, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.

US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad said on Tuesday that Washington's delegation and the Taliban movement agreed "in draft" on the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, but noted that no final agreement has been reached yet. The talks started in the Qatari capital on February 26 and ended on March 12.

"We have seen a noticeable escalation of the military and political situation in this country lately ... Perhaps in such a situation, the opposing sides are building up armed pressure trying to bolster their arguments in the negotiations.

We consider such a path to be unpromising as not only it does not promote reaching agreements, but also directly leads to their failure," Zakharova said at a briefing.

The Taliban movement continues to attack military bases, while the US-led coalition and Afghan pro-government forces have not reduced the intensity of bombing, according to the spokeswoman.

Afghanistan has long been suffering from an unstable security situation. The government has been fighting the Taliban, which has been waging a war against Kabul for almost two decades, and the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia), which has been operating in Afghanistan since 2015.