Al-Awsat addressed political and media information in Washington, new information about Russia's financing of operations to target American soldiers in Afghanistan, while a meeting was announced between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a leading Taliban figure.
The French news agency quoted today, Tuesday, that the White House was aware of intelligence information about Russian rewards for targeting American soldiers in Afghanistan.
The New York Times quoted US officials as saying that at least one American soldier was killed in Afghanistan as a result of rewards Russia paid to the Taliban.
The New York Times last Friday published a report on these Russian plans, but US President Donald Trump denied their authenticity.
However, the New York Times reaffirmed, citing informed officials, that the Trump administration had secretly handled these reports, before it was seen by Britain, whose forces were also the target of the scheme itself.
The New York Times indicated that the US forces' finding large sums of money on a Taliban site had strengthened suspicions about the authenticity of the reports.
The newspaper also reported that the confidence of the American intelligence services in this information was strengthened after the interrogation of some Taliban elements.
Congress seeks clarification
on its part, Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi asked the directors of the CIA and National Intelligence to provide clarifications to the Council in this regard.
The request included the way the US President dealt with Russia in light of these reports.
Pelosi said in a message that the questions revolve around: Was Trump aware of what happened? And if that did not happen, what is the reason? And why was Congress not informed?
She indicated that Congress should know the details of that threat against American soldiers and US allies, and the options available to hold Russia accountable.
Negotiations and Withdrawal
In another context, the spokesman for the Taliban political office, Suhail Shaheen, said that the movement's deputy political affairs Mullah Abdul Ghani Brader held a video conference with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
He explained that the two sides discussed the implementation of the peace agreement, the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan, the release of detainees, and the start of Afghan-Afghan negotiations.
Shaheen added in a tweet via his Twitter account that Mullah Brader confirmed that the movement wanted to start Afghan negotiations, but obstructing the release of the detainees caused it to be postponed.