During the meeting, the Trump administration’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, insisted on a direct appeal to the Kremlin on interaction with the Taliban. Other members of the National Security Council in charge of Russia opposed such actions. What decision was made as a result is not reported.
According to WP, in 2018, ten U.S. military personnel were killed in Afghanistan. In 2019, the United States lost 16 people, and in 2020 – two.
Earlier, on June 27, The New York Times (NYT), citing sources, reported that US intelligence several months ago concluded that Russia was offering the Taliban-linked militants an award for killing American employees.
The White House says Trump has no evidence of collusion between Russia and the Taliban
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the NYT article “unpretentious stuffing” and “nonsense,” recalling that US intelligence “failed” a 20-year operation in Afghanistan.
After that, the official representative of the Taliban, Zabikhulla Mujahid, denied information about Russia’s involvement in the activities of the movement. The Taliban felt that in this way the US is trying to create an excuse to stop the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.
US President Donald Trump called the NYT article custom-made, noted that intelligence did not report to him or to Vice President Mike Pence about the organization of Russian attacks on the US military in Afghanistan. The head of the White House compared the publication to a duck about Kremlin interference in the presidential election in 2016.
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