Political cooperation between Moscow and the Taliban is not on the agenda yet, Russian Ambassador to Kabul Dmitry Zhirnov said on Thursday.

"We, of course, fully take into account the current sanctions regime against the Taliban. There is no talk of political cooperation with the new Afghan authorities yet," Zhirnov told reporters. At the same time, the ambassador said that the Taliban wanted to cooperate with the international community, and Russia was among their priorities, UNI=Sputnik said..

"The Taliban say they want to cooperate with the world community. Their priority is Russia, China, and Pakistan. Now we are focusing on the need to end the humanitarian catastrophe, the next stage is to organise an international forum with the aim of economic reconstruction of the country. Without this, it is impossible to cope with such Afghan problems like refugees, terrorism, drugs," the diplomat said.

According to Zhirnov, the United States is to blame for the deteriorating economic situation in Afghanistan.

"Unfortunately, the situation is bad. A famine is coming to Afghanistan; socio-economic difficulties are growing. The Taliban should thank the United States for this, which has frozen money belonging to Afghanistan," Zhimov added.