23 Jul 2021 17:46

Taliban apparently control from 70% to over 80% of Afghanistan's territory - Lavrov

MOSCOW. July 23 (Interfax) - Certain intelligence indicates that the Taliban (banned in Russia) currently control from 70% to over 80% of Afghanistan's territory, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"They [the Taliban] are controlling, according to some estimations, from 70% to over 80% of the territory," Lavrov said at a webinar on Russia's foreign policy and its successes, challenges, objectives, and prospects on Friday.

The Taliban "are reaching Afghanistan's northern borders, where, taking advantage of this vacuum in the political process apart from them, terrorists are also actively settling down," he said.

"Of course, what is happening in Afghanistan, or to be more precise, what is not happening there, namely a lack of a political process, which the Americans declared as early as two years ago as something agreed upon with both the government and the Taliban, this agreement has not been implemented, and this certainly poses additional risks," Lavrov said.