Moscow:
Russia on Friday mentioned that the United States had failed in its mission in Afghanistan and blamed the withdrawal of foreign forces for the war-torn country’s quickly deteriorating stability.
Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan have capitalised on the last stages of the withdrawal of foreign troops to launch offensives, capturing a swath of districts and border crossings, and encircling provincial capitals.
The White House had attempted to paint the drawdown of foreign troops in “the most positive colours”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov mentioned on Friday.
“But everyone understands that the mission failed,” he told reporters at a conference in Uzbekistan attended by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
Lavrov earlier blamed the “hasty withdrawal” of US and NATO troops worsening safety in Afghanistan and warned of instability spreading to neighbouring nations.
“In recent days we have unfortunately seen a rapid deterioration of the situation in Afghanistan,” he mentioned in comments carried by Russian news agencies.
“In light of the hasty withdrawal of the US and NATO troops, there is huge uncertainty around the future of the political and military situation in this country,” he told reporters.
Russia hosted Taliban representatives in Moscow last week, exactly where the insurgent group claimed to have handle more than about 85 % of Afghanistan.
Moscow is closely watching the Taliban’s advance and concerned about the prospective for instability reaching neighbouring ex-Soviet Central Asian nations exactly where Russia maintains military bases.
Lavrov mentioned the crisis had improved the threat of terrorism and worsened troubles surrounding drug trafficking, which he mentioned had reached “an unprecedented level”.
“It’s clear that, in this situation, there is a real risk of instability spreading to neighbouring countries,” he mentioned in Tashkent, according to Russian news agency TASS.
Earlier this week, ex-Soviet Tajikistan mentioned almost 350 Afghan refugees had crossed its border fleeing Taliban advances.
Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon carried out inspections at border guard posts on Friday, obtaining earlier known as up 20,000 reservists to bolster defences along the country’s shared border with Afghanistan.
Russia’s defence ministry mentioned this week it was staging military drills in Tajikistan exactly where it has a base aimed at buttressing border safety with Afghanistan.
(This story has not been edited by TheSpuzz employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)