You're reading: Russia warns against secret contacts with Taliban

Russia warns all countries involved in the settlement efforts in Afghanistan from secret contacts with the Taliban.

"According to information we have, both the Afghan authorities and a number of their international partners had sporadic contacts with members of the Taliban movement. Moreover, Kabul was not always notified of these meetings," Russian presidential representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said in an interview with Interfax.

"Such behind-the-scenes contacts between representatives of foreign states and organizations with the Taliban are fraught with wrong signals of the international community’s true intentions in the context of the settlement efforts on Afghanistan," he said.

Russia is convinced that dialogue with the armed opposition could have a positive effect for normalizing the situation in Afghanistan only if militants lay down their arms, recognize the constitution and break away from al-Qaida and other extremist organizations, he said.

On the other hand, Russia has repeatedly supported proposals on removing Taliban officials from the UN Security Council sanction list, Kabulov said.

"In addition, we have also supported the proposal on separating the sanction regime imposed by UN Security Council resolution 1267 into two independent mechanisms, with the establishment of new Security Council committees separately on al-Qaida and on the Taliban," he said.

"At the same time we suppose that reciprocal reconciliatory steps on the Taliban part should be a precondition for further actions on relieving the sanctions for the Taliban members on the list," he said.