Lavrov: Plans of ISIS and its supporters in Central Asia and Russia are of great concern

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed his country’s deep concern about the plans of the terrorist organization “ISIS” to destabilize the situation in Central Asia and Russia.

“The plans of ISIS and its supporters to destabilize the countries of Central Asia and export instability to Russia are of particular concern,” TASS news agency quoted Lavrov as saying at the third ministerial conference of countries neighboring Afghanistan, held in the Chinese city of Tunxi. “There are other worrying indicators represented in the accumulation of factions of the so-called “Ansar Allah group” and the “Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan” near the Afghan-Tajik and the Afghan-Uzbek borders, which represents a major tension factor in the region.

Lavrov described the deployment of the infrastructure of the United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) or the Afghans serving them on the territory of neighboring countries, primarily in Central Asia, as unacceptable, stressing that “such plans contradict the security interests of the countries of the region and contradict the obligations arising from legal documents of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

The Russian Foreign Minister pointed out that during twenty years of NATO’s military presence in Afghanistan and the accompanying failed attempts to impose foreign values, Western countries have become directly responsible for the current deteriorating humanitarian situation and the unfortunate state of the Afghan economy. Therefore, it must assume the financial burden in order to overcome this crisis and stabilize the situation.

Lavrov noted that the United States seeks to abdicate and evade any responsibility for Afghan citizens and refugees, as we have seen many times, including those who served Americans and who are now trapped in “transit countries” on their way to America, where it seems that Washington may leave them in the region forever.

Lavrov also criticized the executive order issued by US President Joe Biden to stop half of the deposits of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, amounting to seven billion dollars, under the pretext of “payment of compensation under lawsuits filed by the families of the victims of the September 11 attacks”, describing it as ridiculous. He said that “this limits of the capabilities of the Afghan army and law enforcement personnel there to combat terrorism.”

Lavrov stressed that “the sincerity of the United States’ intentions to help stabilize the situation in Afghanistan is questionable.”

Inas Abdulkareem