The Russian Foreign Ministry said today that it is awaiting the arrival of a Taliban delegation to Moscow to participate in the third round of Afghan talks, while an Afghan delegation headed by the Foreign Minister is holding talks today with Turkish officials in Ankara, The Wall Street Journal reported. An American State Department official said that Washington will resume evacuation flights from Afghanistan before the end of the year.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the expected third round of Afghan talks in Russia falls within what is known as the "Moscow formula", and is expected to be held next Wednesday.

The spokeswoman explained that the talks will focus on strengthening international support for Afghanistan to avoid a humanitarian crisis in the wake of the Taliban's takeover of power in the country in mid-August.

Reuters reported that China, Pakistan, India and Iran will participate in the talks.

Zakharova expressed her country's concern about the growing activity of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, adding that Moscow hopes that the statements of the new Afghan authorities regarding their ability to eliminate ISIS without external interference will be translated on the ground.

The Russian President warned that militants from Iraq and Syria have begun to enter Afghanistan (Reuters)

Putin's concerns

Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned of "extremist fighters from Iraq and Syria starting to enter Afghanistan," adding - in a video meeting with leaders of intelligence services in the Commonwealth of Independent States - that the situation in Afghanistan "is not easy", and that "terrorists may seek to destabilizing the situation in neighboring countries.

Al-Jazeera correspondent in Turkey reported that the delegation of the Taliban government - headed by Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaki - arrived this afternoon in the capital, Ankara, and met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, and the Turkish minister said that his country stressed to the international community "the need to communicate with the Afghan government, which is It's different from recognition."

Turkish media reported that the two sides would discuss humanitarian aid, migration, and the civil aviation file.

Turkey - a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) - kept its embassy in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of Western countries at the end of last August, but Ankara said it would not deal fully with the Taliban unless it formed a more inclusive government.

The visit of the Afghan delegation to Ankara comes a day after the Turkish Foreign Minister told reporters that he and ministers from other countries intend to visit Kabul for talks with the Taliban, and Turkey is working with Qatar to help operate Kabul International Airport and reopen it to international travel.


evacuation flights

And the Wall Street Journal quoted - from an undisclosed source in the US State Department - that the United States will resume evacuation flights from Afghanistan before the end of this year.

The source added that the resumption of flights will help American citizens, residents in the United States and some visa applicants for American soil to leave Afghanistan.

US President Joe Biden had said that one of his administration's first priorities was the evacuation of Americans and green card holders who were unable to leave as part of the evacuation flights that took place in the second half of last August.

An Afghan government source said that the police chief of Shigel district in Kunar province (eastern Afghanistan) was killed in the detonation of an explosive device planted on the side of a road, and the source added that the attack also wounded 11 people in the province, and a doctor at Kunar Hospital told AFP that the hospital It received 4 wounded Taliban fighters and 7 civilians.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan Airlines said today that it had suspended its flights to the Afghan capital after what it described as unfair interference by the Taliban authorities in ticket prices.

The company explained - in a statement - that the decision to suspend flights came after the Taliban ordered the company (which is the only international airline that operates regular flights from Kabul) to reduce ticket prices to the levels they had been since the government of former President Ashraf Ghani in mid-August.