Taliban In, US Out From Afghanistan Peace Talks In Russia 

The Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergei Lavrov has announced that Taliban was on board for peace talks in Moscow in September, The New Indian Express has reported. Taliban is a terrorist group that holds sway in large areas of Afghanistan and is currently at war with the Afghan regime. It is a banned organisation in Russia. The Russian news agency Interfax reported that 12 nations, including the United States (US), have been invited for talks. The move is seen as a sign of larger involvement of Russia in Afghanistan.

“Representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban movement have been invited. The initial response has been positive,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by Washington Post. Afghanistan's ambassador in Moscow, Abdul Kayum Kuchai welcomed the Taliban involvement in peace talks.

However, the US state department has indicated that it will not attend the talks. “We support Afghan-owned and -led initiatives to advance a peace settlement in Afghanistan. We believe this (Russian) initiative is unlikely to yield any progress toward that end,” the US State Department spokesman said.

Back channel diplomacy with several countries has been going on between several nations under a shroud of secrecy. Russia had conducted talks on Afghanistan in April 2017, but the US had not attended the talks. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had announced a three month conditional ceasefire with Taliban recently.