ERBIL, Kurdistan Region--Moscow is sharing information with the Taliban against the Islamic State (ISIS) activities in Afghanistan, President Vladimir Putin's special representative for Afghanistan told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday. "The Taliban interest objectively coincides with ours," when it comes to fighting ISIS Zanir Kabulov reasoned. "I have already said earlier that we and the Taliban have channels for exchanging information." Russia has long been opposed to the Taliban, fearing that a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan could be used as a launchpad to support Islamist terrorist attacks in Russia or the former Soviet republics, but it views the group as a lesser evil against ISIS which it can work with on an ad-hoc basis. Kabulov said that Russia is also ready to supply the central government in Kabul (an enemy of the Taliban) with arms to help it deal with the threat by ISIS. Doubtlessly those arms may well be used by that government in its continuing war with the Taliban. The Taliban recently announced that it established a specially-equipped 1,000-man strong fighting-force with the sole aim of hitting ISIS wherever it can across Afghanistan. Russia also announced in recent weeks that it is coordinating its air power in Syria with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) group against ISIS. The FSA has denied this. A recent article in The Daily Beast also suggested that Russia was willing to work with Sunni tribesmen in Iraq against ISIS.
Kurdistan15-09-2026PM Barzani announces end of cash payroll as 1M employees to get salaries via MyAccount
