The acting defense minister in the Taliban regime, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, stepped off a flight in Kabul last week to deliver a warning to Pakistan.
Islamabad, he said, would "soon no longer dare" to attack Afghan territory due to the military-technical cooperation agreement he had just signed in Moscow.
He also said the implementation of the agreement with Russia would begin shortly.
At the same time, Yaqoob tried to downplay any international concerns about military cooperation between the regime and Moscow. The agreement, he insisted, was not a defense or security pact. It was focused on repairing and maintaining Russian-made weapons systems already in Afghanistan's arsenal, including helicopters and other aircraft.
He even suggested similar arrangements could be made with the United States, noting that American weapons had also been left in the wake of the NATO invasion of Afghanistan.
