Afghanistan Times
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Russia’s Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Zamir Kabulov, said that his country was sharing intelligence about Daesh with the Taliban insurgents. The diplomat believes that it would help Moscow to clip growing wings of the global terror group which is also known as the Islamic State. According to Kabulov the Pakistani and Afghan insurgents had refused to recognize Abdu Bakar al Baghdadi, the group’s leader, as a caliph. Russia is also engaged in a war against the terror group in the Middle East. Russian forces are continuously targeting Daesh in Syria. In civil war-hit Syria, Moscow got Bashar al-Assad as a trusted friend. The two shares common interests. Therefore, they are on the same page.
However, in Afghanistan the Putin-administration is trying to bring the Taliban close as an ally against Daesh. A couple of years ago, the Russian officials were concerned over growing power of the Taliban. The Russia-led CSTO troops were deployed on Afghan-Tajik border till 2005, showing how much Moscow was worried about the Taliban’s ability to strike. She wanted to prevent the Afghan insurgents from making inroads into Central Asia. For Russian security officials, the Taliban militant group is a symbol of extremism and violence.
Since reports about emergence of Daesh in Afghanistan, Moscow’s concerns increased further. Russia knows that the Taliban had no regional and global designs and their activities remained limited to Afghanistan. On the other hand Daesh is a global terror organization with objectives to spread violence across the world. IS not only threatens Russian interests in the Middle East and South Asia but also its own internal security. Once Daesh fighters enter into central Asia, it will unleash a wave of terror that could destabilize the former Soviet Union states.
Therefore, Russia should be concerned about the growing power of Dash in Afghanistan. However, Russian alliance with the Taliban against the Islamic States is a bad move. It is also interference into Afghanistan. It will boost morale and strength of the Taliban insurgents against the Afghan government, thus, landing the war-hit country into the troubled waters. The Afghan government will find it more complicated than ever to reconcile with the Taliban.
Russia should share intelligence information about Daesh with Afghan government because Afghan leaders have already requested Moscow for military support against Daesh. When Afghan government is an ally of Russia in the war against extremism and terrorism then there is no need for Moscow to find commonalities with the insurgents. Russian authorities should launch joint military operations against Daesh. Indeed, Afghan government will support Russia in this regard because the terrorist group not only threatens Russia but Afghanistan as well.
