Taliban angry with Saudi media over ‘fake news’

Afghanistan’s Taliban movement has expressed “anger and dissatisfaction” with the Saudi media over false news about the movement’s summoning of the Saudi Chargé d’Affaires to protest the presence of a woman in a meeting held a few days ago.

Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya channel and other Saudi media outlets reported that the Taliban had summoned the Saudi Chargé d’Affaires to protest the presence of a woman in a meeting held between the Taliban’s foreign minister and a Saudi delegation in Moscow, which caused “tension”.

“The news is false. We did not expect such lies to be published by media outlets operating from within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the Taliban said in its response to one of the Saudi news accounts that had reported the news.

Later, Al-Arabiya deleted the tweet and news item from its site.

Three days ago, representatives of the Saudi government met with a Taliban delegation in the Russian capital, Moscow, and discussed bilateral relations and humanitarian aid to Kabul.

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