The Taliban says it controls most of Afghanistan and reassures Russia’s By Reuters news agency

By Polina Nikolskaya

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Taliban delegation in Moscow on Friday said the group controlled more than 85 percent of Afghanistan’s territory and assured Russia it would not allow the country to be used as a platform to attack others.

Foreign forces, including the United States, are retreating after nearly 20 years of fighting, which has prompted Taliban insurgency to try to gain new territory in Afghanistan.

This has prompted hundreds of Afghan security workers and refugees to flee across the border into neighboring Tajikistan and sparked fears that Moscow and other capitals could infiltrate Islamist extremists in Central Asia, a region Russia sees as its backyard.

At a press conference in Moscow on Friday, the three Taliban officials wanted to express that they did not pose a threat to the wider region.

Officials said the Taliban will do everything in their power to prevent Islamic State in Afghanistan and also eliminate drug production.

“We will take all measures to ensure that the Islamic State does not operate in the territory of Afghanistan … and our territory will never be used against our neighbors,” Taliban official Shahabuddin Delawar said in a statement.

The same delegation said a day earlier that the group would not attack the Tajik-Afghan border, whose fate lies in Russia and Central Asia.

Moscow has stressed that tensions at the same border have risen sharply, now two-thirds controlled by the Taliban, the Interfax news agency reported on Russia’s foreign ministry on Friday.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has called on all sides in the Afghanistan conflict and said the CSTO-led military bloc led by Russia and Moscow will act decisively if necessary to prevent border attacks, the RIA reported.

The Taliban delegation said at the same press conference that the group would respect the rights of ethnic minorities and that all Afghan citizens should have the right to a decent education within the framework of Islamic law and Afghan traditions.

“All the representatives of Afghan society … we want to be involved in the creation of an Afghan state,” Delawar said.