Afghan Taliban rejected on Friday claims made by a Russian official that they have contacted the group to seek its cooperation against the Islamic State.
“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, told Interfax news agency.
The Afghan Taliban, however, have denied the Russian diplomat claims.
Taliban and members of Islamic State had been involved in fighting in recent months in parts of Nangarhar province that caused death to dozens of people. Some clashes were also reported in Zabul province.
Earlier, Kabulov had said, ”I have said before that we have communication channels with the Taliban to exchange information.”
“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.
“That is very important,” added Kabulov, an Afghanistan expert who held negotiations with Taliban leader Mullah Omar in the mid-1990s, when the group seized a Russian transport plane and held seven Russians hostage for a year in the Kandahar airport.
Contacted by AFP, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova confirmed Kabulov’s remarks were reported correctly. “It has to do with fighting the Islamic State group,” she said.
Russia considers the Taliban a terrorist group and it is banned in the country, along with the Islamic State group.
