Taliban Says it Controls Most of Afghanistan, Reassures Russia

Members of Taliban political office Abdul Latif Mansoor (L), Shahabuddin Delawar (C) and Suhail Shaheen attend a news conference in Moscow, Russia July 9, 2021. (Reuters)
Members of Taliban political office Abdul Latif Mansoor (L), Shahabuddin Delawar (C) and Suhail Shaheen attend a news conference in Moscow, Russia July 9, 2021. (Reuters)
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Taliban Says it Controls Most of Afghanistan, Reassures Russia

Members of Taliban political office Abdul Latif Mansoor (L), Shahabuddin Delawar (C) and Suhail Shaheen attend a news conference in Moscow, Russia July 9, 2021. (Reuters)
Members of Taliban political office Abdul Latif Mansoor (L), Shahabuddin Delawar (C) and Suhail Shaheen attend a news conference in Moscow, Russia July 9, 2021. (Reuters)

A Taliban delegation in Moscow said on Friday that the group controlled over 85% of territory in Afghanistan and reassured Russia it would not allow the country to be used as a platform to attack others.

Foreign forces, including the United States, are withdrawing after almost 20 years of fighting, a move that has emboldened Taliban insurgents to try to gain fresh territory in Afghanistan.

That has prompted hundreds of Afghan security personnel and refugees to flee across the border into neighboring Tajikistan and raised fears in Moscow and other capitals that extremists could infiltrate Central Asia, a region Russia views as its backyard.

At a news conference in Moscow on Friday, three Taliban officials sought to signal that they did not pose a threat to the wider region however.

The officials said the Taliban would do all it could to prevent ISIS operating on Afghan territory and that it would also seek to wipe out drug production.

“We will take all measures so that Islamic State will not operate on Afghan territory... and our territory will never be used against our neighbors,” Taliban official Shahabuddin Delawar said through a translator.

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

Moscow has noted a sharp increase in tensions on the same border, two thirds of which the Taliban currently controls, the Interfax news agency cited Russia’s foreign ministry as saying on Friday.

Russia’s foreign ministry called on all sides of the Afghanistan conflict to show restraint and said that Russia and the Moscow-led CSTO military bloc would act decisively to prevent aggression on the border if necessary, RIA reported.

The Taliban delegation told the same news conference that the group would respect the rights of ethnic minorities and all Afghan citizens should have the right to a decent education in the framework of religious law and Afghan traditions.

“We want all representatives of Afghan society ... to take part in creating an Afghan state,” said Delawar.



Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Says Latest Phone Call with Trump His Most Productive Yet

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a press conference in the garden at Marselisborg Castle on the occasion of Denmark taking over the EU presidency, in Aarhus, Denmark, July 3, 2025. (Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix/via Reuters)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a press conference in the garden at Marselisborg Castle on the occasion of Denmark taking over the EU presidency, in Aarhus, Denmark, July 3, 2025. (Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix/via Reuters)
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Ukraine’s Zelenskiy Says Latest Phone Call with Trump His Most Productive Yet

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a press conference in the garden at Marselisborg Castle on the occasion of Denmark taking over the EU presidency, in Aarhus, Denmark, July 3, 2025. (Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix/via Reuters)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a press conference in the garden at Marselisborg Castle on the occasion of Denmark taking over the EU presidency, in Aarhus, Denmark, July 3, 2025. (Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix/via Reuters)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that his latest conversation with US President Donald Trump this week was the best and "most productive" he has had to date.

"Regarding the conversation with the president of the United States, which took place a day earlier, it was probably the best conversation we have had during this whole time, the most productive," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

"We discussed air defense issues and I'm grateful for the willingness to help. The Patriot system is precisely the key to protection against ballistic threats."

Zelenskiy said the two leaders had discussed "several other important matters" that officials from the two sides would be considering in forthcoming meetings.

Trump told reporters on Friday that he had a good call with Zelenskiy and restated his disappointment at a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin over what he said was Moscow's lack of willingness to work toward a ceasefire.

Asked whether the United States would agree to supply more Patriot missiles to Ukraine, as requested by Zelenskiy, Trump said: "They're going to need them for defense... They're going to need something because they're being hit pretty hard."

Russia has intensified air attacks on Kyiv and other cities in recent weeks. Moscow's forces launched the largest drone attack of the 40-month-old war on the Ukrainian capital hours after Trump's conversation with Putin on Thursday.