Russia on Monday said it was preparing international peace talks on Afghanistan on September 4 and has invited the Taliban. “We are preparing it for September 4,” Zamir Kabulov, special representative of the Russian President on Afghanistan, said in an Interfax news agency report. Asked whether the Taliban was invited to the meeting in Moscow, Mr. Kabulov said they were and that the talks were “in the framework of launching a process of national reconciliation in Afghanistan”. He said Moscow views “positively” the truce offer extended by Mr. Ghani, which followed a bloody week of fighting. In April 2017, Moscow hosted an international conference on Afghanistan with representatives from Afghanistan, India, Iran, China, Pakistan, and five former Soviet republics in Central Asia. The U.S. was invited to that meeting but did not participate.
