Major Opponents of Taliban Ask Regional Countries To Help Remove Group From Power

The National Resistance Council for Salvation of Afghanistan has urged participants of Samarkand meeting to pressurise the Taliban. In an open letter, the Council has called the Taliban a global threat and urged regional countries to support Afghans to overthrow the group.

The National Resistance Council for Salvation of Afghanistan includes prominent political figures such as Atta Mohammad Noor, General Dostum, and Yunos Qanooni, who reside outside Afghanistan ever since the fall of the country to the Taliban in 2021.

In its letter, the Council stressed that powerful countries of the region are optimistic about the Taliban.

The Taliban opponents at the Salvation Council added that the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan has been destabilising Afghanistan and regional countries and said that “extremism and increasing violence in Pakistan is also rooted in the current situation in Afghanistan”.

The Samarkand meeting will be held today in Uzbekistan and is the fourth round of meetings of foreign ministers of Afghanistan's neighbours, including China and Russia, most of whom have good relations with the Taliban.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday that Beijing seeks to strengthen the consensus of neighbouring countries on the situation in Afghanistan at the fourth meeting of foreign ministers of Afghanistan's neighbours in Uzbekistan.

The foreign ministers of Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan will participate in the Samarkand meeting.