MOSCOW (AP) — A senior Russian diplomat says Moscow is trying to broker Afghan peace talks because it considers the U.S. has failed in Afghanistan.
Russia's presidential envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said a Moscow conference on Afghanistan Friday that brought together representatives of the Afghan authorities and the Taliban marked an attempt to "take a modest first step toward full-fledged peace talks."
Kabulov said Monday that Russia has sought to contribute to peace efforts because the continuing fighting in Afghanistan threatens the security interests of Russia and its allies in Central Asia.
He noted that the U.S. and its allies have failed to defeat the Taliban, saying that "the West has lost the war in Afghanistan."
Kabulov charged that "the presence of the U.S. and NATO hasn't only failed to solve the problem but exacerbated it."
