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Only Russia Can Help Afghanistan: Karzai
Former President Hamid Karzai has said that Russia is the only force which can help Afghanistan fight terrorism.
In an interview with Russian news channel, the ex-president said, “I understand perfectly well that if you [Russia] build new relations with Pakistan and Afghanistan, you can help us. Not the Britons as we kicked them out of the country several times, not the Americans as they’ve been killing us for 17 years, but Russia only. We [Afghanistan] are the last barrier from terrorists. We’ve been fighting continuously for a century and a half.”
“Moscow has always helped us, even when its forces invaded Afghanistan at the invitation of then-president Babrak Karmal. We surely fought each other at those times, but you [Russia] used to build schools and hospitals in Afghanistan.”
He alleged: “Americans lie when they say that Al-Qaeda emerged as the result of your [Russia’s] invasion. They wanted to be the only superpower and they did it. The USSR collapsed and one of the reasons was the Afghan war.”
For all requests to explain its actions, the US answered with neutral phrases, like “in order to defend stability in the region,” Karzai explained, adding that he had decided to resign after he had come up with the idea that Afghanistan was just being used.
“People used to come to me continuously from four different provinces, saying that foreigners had come by unidentified choppers to kick them out of their building and kill them. The foreigners are much more dangerous, they called themselves ‘the caliphate.’ There are several thousands of them now in Afghanistan,” the ex-president said.
At the same time, Karzai noted that Afghanistan’s airspace was “fully controlled by the Americans.”
“Nothing flies without their permission. They have mercenaries in Afghanistan with their own army, aviation and security service. I tried to kick them out of the country, but I failed,” Karzai concluded.
Pakistan’s government on Friday extended the stay of Afghan refugees in the country till June 30, amid repatriation of illegal foreign nationals.
There are around 1.3 million registered Afghans living in Pakistan, according to a spokesman for UN refugee agency UNHCR in Islamabad, Dawn newspaper reported.
“On the recommendation of the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions, the federal cabinet approved the extension of the validity of PoR cards of Afghan refugees from April 1, 2024, to June 30, 2024,” said an official statement, issued by the Prime Minister’s Office.
The PoR cardholders will be repatriated in the third phase of the plan that will begin after the repatriation of “illegal foreign nationals” residing in Pakistan is completed, the statement added.
The PoR card holders avail schools, bank accounts and other facilities in Pakistan.
Repatriation of undocumented refugees began on November 1 and continues. More than 500,000 Afghans have been expelled so far.
John Bass, US acting under secretary of state for political affairs, will travel to Qatar and Pakistan April 26-30, US State Department announced on Friday.
In Doha, Qatar, he will meet with senior Qatari government officials and other diplomatic missions to discuss support for Afghanistan and shared security interests in the region, US State Department said in a statement.
In Islamabad, Pakistan, Under Secretary Bass will meet with senior Pakistani government officials to discuss a range of regional and bilateral issues as part of the U.S.-Pakistani partnership, the statement added.
John Bass served as US ambassador to Afghanistan under Donald Trump administration between December 2017 and January 2020.
A tripartite meeting between the delegations of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan was held in Kabul with the aim of connecting North Asia to South Asia and reducing transit and transportation costs among these three countries, the Ministry of Trade and Commerce said in a statement.
In this meeting, an agreement was reached on the creation of a joint technical committee to continue the talks.
This tripartite meeting was held under the leadership of Nooruddin Azizi, the Acting Minister of Industry and Commerce, Vice President of Turkmenistan and Srik Zhumangarin, the Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan.
Earlier, a bilateral meeting was held between the delegation of the Islamic Emirate and Turkmenistan. The ministry of commerce said the participants of the meeting discussed the construction of a large joint logistics center in Torghondi, the trilateral transit agreement between the IEA, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan, the expansion of Afghanistan’s railway, solving issues related to Afghan transit and export goods, and a number of other commercial issues.
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