Russia supports expanding the participation of international mediators in settling the crisis in Afghanistan

Moscow-Sana

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced his country's support for expanding the participation of international mediators in settling the crisis in Afghanistan, including Iran and India.

"We are interested in the accession of Iran and in the later stages of other countries, especially India, to contacts related to the situation in Afghanistan," the Russian Sputnik news agency quoted Lavrov as telling reporters today.

"We support the Afghan settlement taking place with the participation of all the political and ethnic forces in the country, which has now slowed down because the government delegation, unfortunately, for a year and a half or two years ago was not interested in resuming negotiations, and because of this situation, the Taliban unfortunately decided to try to solve the situation by military means and invade more cities and provinces," Lavrov added. Everything is bad and wrong in Afghanistan today.”

Lavrov stressed that holding an urgent session of the UN Security Council on Afghanistan would be useful if it contributes to a genuine peaceful dialogue and not just a goal to gain time.

The US decision to speed up the withdrawal from Afghanistan led to a wide advance by the Taliban militants and their control over the centers of 18 Afghan provinces in recent days, and the movement threatened to seize the capital, Kabul, by force, unless the outstanding issues between it and the federal government were resolved through negotiation.

The US occupation of the country for twenty years under the pretext of combating the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda failed to achieve security and peace for the Afghan people, but rather plunged the country into a cycle of chaos and violence.