Has Russia conspired against the U.S. in Afghanistan?

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a videoconference with Taliban deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the U.S. State Department said.

It said Pompeo warned Baradar against attacks against U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

This came after the emergence of reports about the presence of a deal between Russia and the Taliban for targeting U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Taliban Spokesman Suhail Shaheen said his movement is committed to negotiations with the U.S.

He added on Twitter that the release of Taliban prisoners would prove the presence of a goodwill on the road to a deal.

Secret deal

The American newspaper, New York Times, ran a report on July 1, in which it said Russia was running clandestine operations to undermine the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and aid the Taliban.

It added that U.S. officials only recently concluded that a Russian spy agency was paying bounties for killing coalition troops, including Americans, which the Kremlin and the Taliban have denied.

That conclusion, it said, touched off a political firestorm in Washington.

The New York Times noted that White House officials said at first that President Trump was never briefed on the matter, but it emerged that the intelligence assessment was included in a written briefing to the president in late February, if not earlier.

Russia, for its part, has rejected these allegations. It dismissed Pompeo's assertion that he had complained about the supposed weapon sales to his Russian counterpart.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that Russia has only supplied weapons to the Afghan government.

She accused the U.S. of providing assistance to Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan.