Russia hopes that the recent announcement of the Afghan presidential election's results and the fallout that resulted from it will not break the momentum in the intra-Afghan dialogue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday, following a meeting with Mir Rahman Rahmani, speaker of the Afghan parliament's lower house
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th February, 2020) Russia hopes that the recent announcement of the Afghan presidential election's results and the fallout that resulted from it will not break the momentum in the intra-Afghan dialogue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday, following a meeting with Mir Rahman Rahmani, speaker of the Afghan parliament's lower house.
On Tuesday, the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan finally announced the outcome of the September 28 vote. Incumbent President Ashraf Ghani won with 50.64 percent, but the result was rejected by two other candidates. The Taliban movement said that Ghani's re-election would damage the peace process in the country.
"I hope that the announcement of the results of the September election and the reaction to this [announcement] will not hinder the advancement toward positive contacts between all Afghans with the aim of solving all problems in your long-suffering country," Lavrov said.
The minister also noted that Moscow would welcome the start of "serious" intra-Afghan talks and would be ready to assist.
"We always seek to ensure that the Afghans agree among themselves both within the framework of the Moscow format that we launched and within the framework of intra-Afghan meetings started at our initiative. We never try to impose something from the outside," Lavrov said.
The Russian official also mentioned that Moscow and Kabul had long-standing warm relations that were currently reaching a new level, in part due to various economic projects, and joint restoration efforts for facilities built with the help of the Soviet Union. According to Lavrov, peace in Afghanistan will only contribute to bilateral cooperation.
Moscow has hosted several rounds of consultations on Afghan peace over the past years. While no new rounds are planned for the near future, Russia does not rule out the possibility of organizing further consultations in the Moscow format in case the US-Taliban talks fail to yield tangible results, Russian Ambassador to Kabul Alexander Mantytsky told Sputnik last month.
