MOSCOW – The rising threat of Daesh in Afghanistan and the US Forcesinaction against the terrorist organisation is bringing Pakistan and Russiatogether with each passing day.
*Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that the United States andNATO coalition have been trying to downplay the existence of Daeshmilitants in Afghanistan.*
“We are alarmed as unfortunately, the US and NATO military in Afghanistanmakes every effort to silence and deny [the Daesh group’s presence inAfghanistan],” Lavrov told reporters after talks with his Pakistanicounterpart Khawaja Muhammad Asif in Moscow.
He said that Russia was skeptical about US and NATO’s resolve to eliminateDaesh in the country.
“We have very serious suspicions over the measures that the NATO coalitionin Afghanistan is using to curb this threat,” he said.
“According to our data, the IS presence in northern and eastern Afghanistanis rather serious, there are already thousands of gunmen,” Lavrov said.”This increases the risk of the terrorists’ penetration to Central Asia andit is not that difficult to get to Russia.”
Lavrov stressed the need to step up efforts to prevent this scenario. “TheShanghai Cooperation Organization, where Pakistan and India havefull-fledged membership, is represented by all key neighbors of Afghanistanand Afghanistan is taking part as an observer at the SCO,” he said.
The foreign ministers are meanwhile also expected to focus on the rolePakistan and Russia could play in promoting political negotiations onending the conflict in Afghanistan.
Besides Pakistan, China, Iran and Central Asian states are also in supportof Russia’s regional peace initiative for a political solution to the warin Afghanistan.
According to Lavrov, the presence of Daesh in the north and east ofAfghanistan is “serious” and “already amounts to a thousand people.”
Moscow is especially concerned, he said, about the security threat thiscreates for neighboring former Soviet republics and to Russia.
“Pakistan deeply values its closely and cooperative relations with theRussian Federation. Pakistan wants to enhance cooperation with Russia indiverse fields including trade, energy, defense production,” said Asif.
On Pakistan and Afghanistan relations, he said: “Our brotherly neighborAfghanistan is in a painful situation. We believe that there is no militarysolution to Afghanistan’s internal conflict. A politically negotiatedsettlement to an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace and reconciliationprocess is the only viable solution to a lasting peace in Afghanistan.Pakistan and Russia share common concerns relating to threat posed by theprevailing situation ranging from terrorism, drug production, use of drugmoney for terror financing to security of the region and countries,” saidAsif.
“Increasing presence of Daesh and locating its camps close to borders ofPakistan and central Asian republics is a cause for common concern. In thiscontext, we share Russian concerns about unchecked proliferation of Daeshin Afghanistan. The presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan has achievednothing over the last seventeen years. Their monumental failures inAfghanistan and there is an effort to (blame) Pakistan and other countriesfor these failures. We have rejected these baseless allegations,” said Asif.
He said Russia and Pakistan are committed to promoting peace and stabilityin Afghanistan.
This comes a few weeks after Daesh and the Taliban staged several attacksin Afghanistan, including one on a hotel in Kabul on January 20 and anothera week later on the old interior ministry road that killed over 100 people- the majority of them civilians.
Moscow has repeatedly criticized Washington’s strategy in Afghanistan,calling on the Taliban to be included in peace negotiations with the Afghangovernment.