Uzbekistan: US mission in Afghanistan 'failed' – Lavrov amid withdrawal of troops

У вашего броузера проблема в совместимости с HTML5

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke on the withdrawal of US and other NATO troops from Afghanistan on the sidelines of the ‘Central and South Asia: Regional Connectivity. Challenges and Opportunities’ international conference in Tashkent, Friday.
“The Americans left, as President Biden actually confirmed because they considered their mission accomplished. Of course, he tried to present the situation in the most positive colours, but everyone understands that the mission failed,” Lavrov said.
“It seems to us that for this it is not necessary to invent any new agreements, it is necessary to fulfil what was already agreed by the government, first of all, and by the Taliban movement,” he added.
Following the withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan, which started on May 1, the country is seeing a surge in violence while Taliban forces rapidly retake territory.

The Biden administration has announced that all US military forces will have left the country by September 11, ending an almost 20-year deployment.

SOT, Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister (Russian): “The Americans left, as President Biden actually confirmed because they considered their mission accomplished. Of course, he tried to present the situation in the most positive colours, but everyone understands that the mission failed. This is openly admitted, in the United States as well. Terrorism has not disappeared, ISIS and the Al-Qaeda branch have strengthened their positions in Afghanistan, drug production has reached record heights - now 90 per cent of all drugs in the world come from Afghanistan, and practically nothing is being done to combat it. Of course, the creation of the security forces, the armed forces of Afghanistan, can be considered as such very conditionally. Statistics show that 300,000 servicemen are in the service of the Afghan government, the Taliban has three or four times fewer [people], but nevertheless, you can see what the result is. We are not interested in chaos there. Not only because we do not want it to flow into neighbouring countries allied to us, but also simply because we wish all the best to the Afghan people and are interested in ensuring that these friendly people live peacefully in a society that develops sustainably without any threats of terrorism and drug trafficking coming from this territory. So we will continue to work with the Americans in the format of the so-called ‘expanded three’ - Russia, the United States, China - we will also work with all other countries that in one way or another can influence the situation in Afghanistan, including our partners from Central Asia, with India, Iran, with the United States as well. We have a Moscow format that includes all the key players in this field.” *NO CUTAWAYS AT SOURCE*

SOT, Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister (Russian): “First of all, a group of Afghan politicians is planned to travel, but without representatives of the government, headed by Abdullah Abdullah. He is the chairman of the National Council for Reconciliation. As I heard, a delegation is expected to travel with him, in which other ethnic groups of Afghanistan will be represented: Tajiks, Uzbeks, others - they are going to go to Doha to meet with the Taliban. After that, they planned to go to Islamabad. At least, the Pakistani foreign minister told me exactly that. They wanted to do it as soon as possible, but now it seems this is all postponed until July 25. Here, on the sidelines of the conference, they are discussing some other formats - there can be a great many of them now, everyone will want to somehow (probably, most of the best intentions) help to give impetus to the political process, which has long been at an impasse. It seems to us that for this it is not necessary to invent any new agreements, it is necessary to fulfil what was already agreed by the government, first of all, and by the Taliban movement.”
#Lavrov #Afghanistan #Russia
Video ID: 20210716-034

Video on Demand: https://ruptly.tv/videos/20210716-034
Contact: [email protected]

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Ruptly
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Ruptly