Iran’s envoy to the United Nations said Thursday that some terrorist elements are being relocated from Syria to Afghanistan, posing a direct threat to the country’s neighbors and to regional stability.
“Daesh, al-Qaida, and foreign terrorist fighters continue to destabilize Syria and the wider region,” Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani told a UN Security Council meeting on terrorism. “We are seriously and deeply alarmed by credible reports indicating the relocation of certain terrorist elements and foreign terrorist fighters from Syria to Afghanistan, which pose a direct threat to Afghanistan’s neighbors and regional stability.”
He urged UN member states to fully comply with international law in combating terrorism “in all its forms and manifestations.”
The Taliban have repeatedly denied the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan. But a recent UN report says the country currently hosts about 2,000 Islamic State fighters and some 6,000 members of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
