Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has recently accused the US of providing “strong” support to terrorist outfits including the Islamic State Khorasan (ISK) and the Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
The foreign minister made the remarks during a visit to a Russian military base in Tajikistan reacting to an earlier statement of the US Ambassador to Tajikistan Manuel Micaller who had said that Washington “does not support violent groups opposing the Taliban and calls on all sides in Afghanistan to engage in dialogue.”
Lavrov reacted.
“These are, in the language of diplomacy, false statements. It is well known that the US actively supports IS militants remaining in Afghanistan and al-Qaeda and other affiliated terrorist groups,” the minister was quoted saying to the Russian news agency TASS Monday.
“The goal is simple. Just like they did in other cases in the Caucasus at the end of the last decade, the goal is not to allow Afghanistan to calm down. It is in the interests of the United States to have some destabilizing processes constantly taking place there.”
Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, Russia has raised concerns about the transnational terrorist network in the country.
Russian is particularly concerned about the infiltration of terrorism across Central Asian borders.
“It is not by chance that they do not give up the idea of returning their military infrastructure to the neighboring countries. As if to react to terrorist threats beyond the horizon,” Lavrov added further to TASS.
