Russia has said that Daesh is seeking to undermine security and stability in Afghanistan and its neighboring countries, relying on external support.
Quoted by Russia’s TASS news agency, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that “the security situation in Afghanistan is tense.”
“Clearly, ISIL (Daesh) is engaged in subversive activities against the countries’ current authorities,” she said. “At the same time, it seeks to undermine stability in the Central Asian countries neighboring Afghanistan. In this, ISIL is clearly encouraged by external forces; ISIL members themselves have confirmed that the terrorist group receives funds from foreign intelligence agencies and there are foreign terrorists among its fighters.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman pointed out that the Taliban “has been able to keep the situation stable in the country, although that is not an easy thing to do given sanctions and Western countries’ move to block the Afghanistan Central Bank’s assets.”
“We have seen the first positive results of the new Afghan authorities’ anti-drug efforts,” Zakharova said. “The remaining economic and humanitarian difficulties are the obvious result of the policy of double standards pursued by Washington and its satellites who continue to link humanitarian assistance to the country’s population with political concessions from the Afghan leadership,” she noted.
“Russia, for its part, continues to provide free assistance to the Afghan people,” Zakharova emphasized.
She added that “in particular, another shipment of Russian food was delivered to Afghanistan in May as part of our core contribution to the UN World Food Program, which contained about one thousand tons of food.”
Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States will continue to be focused on preventing the resurgence of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan as part of its core national security interest
He said the US is also working with partners, with neighbors to strengthen the capacity to deal with any terrorism that may be located in Afghanistan and emanating from there.
Analysts have said that the Taliban lacks the ability to remove Daesh in Afghanistan. The group has claimed responsibility for many major bombings in Afghanistan over the past two years of the Taliban rule in the country.
