MOSCOW – The Afghan Taliban claimed control of 85 percent of Afghanistan’s land on Friday, as the organisation pressed its attack despite the US military departure.
Taliban negotiator Shahabuddin Delawar stated at a news conference in Moscow that the organisation controls “85 percent of Afghanistan’s land,” including 250 of the country’s 398 districts.
“On this region, all administrative organisations and hospitals continue to operate. He urged international organisations not to “disrupt their missions” by ensuring their operation.
According to Delawar, the US pullout was the consequence of the Taliban winning over Afghanistan’s populace via the “idea of Islam.”
He stated, “The United States was compelled to abandon our area.”
He also stated that the Taliban and the US had not reached an agreement for the Taliban to refrain from attacking administrative centres still under Kabul’s authority.
Delawar stated, “These are our internal matters.”
After a brutal Taliban attack in Afghanistan’s north, more than 1,000 Afghan forces escaped to Tajikistan this week.
Afghan authorities have pledged to recapture all of the areas lost to the organisation, and have sent hundreds of troops north to fight their onslaught.
Moscow is keeping a careful eye on the attack, since it is concerned about the security of its military outposts in Central Asia.
The Taliban “now controls roughly two-thirds” of Afghanistan’s border with ex-Soviet Tajikistan, according to Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.
A Taliban team met with the Kremlin’s envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, in Moscow on Thursday, while the Russian foreign ministry said it had obtained guarantees that Central Asian borders would not be crossed.
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden justified his country’s exit from Afghanistan, while he conceded that Kabul’s control of the whole country was “very improbable.”