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The Commander of the United States Central Command General Josef Votel said at a session in the U.S Senate this week that Russia might provide support to the Taliban in order to be an influential party in Afghanistan.

“It’s fair to assume they may be providing some kind of support to them in terms of weapons or other things that maybe there. I think that is the possibility.

I believe what Russia is attempting to do is they are attempting to be an influential party in this part of the world,” Votel said in response to a question from a U.S senator on what support Russians are sending to the Taliban and how direct their involvement is.

He said the U.S war in Afghanistan has reached a deadlock but the situation overall is in favor of Afghanistan.

He said the deadlock will be broken by ongoing assistance from Washington.

“We are at a stalemate right now. Right now I would say that it is generally in favor of the government of Afghanistan, but stalemates have a tendency to decline over time, so I think we have to continue to support this. We have two missions in Afghanistan; one is our counterterrorism mission, fully resourced, that is going pretty well,” Votel said.

“None of us will forget about the essential fight to prevent Afghanistan from returning to be a base for terrorism,” said U.S Congressman Mac Thornberry.

Russian officials recently rejected claims of helping the Taliban and said their contact with the group is to convince the Taliban to come to negotiations tables with the Afghan government.

“It’s fair to assume they may be providing some kind of support to them in terms of weapons or other things that maybe there,” said General Josef Votel. 

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The Commander of the United States Central Command General Josef Votel said at a session in the U.S Senate this week that Russia might provide support to the Taliban in order to be an influential party in Afghanistan.

“It’s fair to assume they may be providing some kind of support to them in terms of weapons or other things that maybe there. I think that is the possibility.

I believe what Russia is attempting to do is they are attempting to be an influential party in this part of the world,” Votel said in response to a question from a U.S senator on what support Russians are sending to the Taliban and how direct their involvement is.

He said the U.S war in Afghanistan has reached a deadlock but the situation overall is in favor of Afghanistan.

He said the deadlock will be broken by ongoing assistance from Washington.

“We are at a stalemate right now. Right now I would say that it is generally in favor of the government of Afghanistan, but stalemates have a tendency to decline over time, so I think we have to continue to support this. We have two missions in Afghanistan; one is our counterterrorism mission, fully resourced, that is going pretty well,” Votel said.

“None of us will forget about the essential fight to prevent Afghanistan from returning to be a base for terrorism,” said U.S Congressman Mac Thornberry.

Russian officials recently rejected claims of helping the Taliban and said their contact with the group is to convince the Taliban to come to negotiations tables with the Afghan government.

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