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KABUL: In his recent visit to Saudi Arabia, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced concerns about resurgence of terrorism from Afghanistan and stressed the need to prevent it from becoming a safe haven for terrorist groups.
Speaking at a press conference, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud echoed Blinken’s concerns underlining the need to focus more in Afghanistan so it won’t turn into a sanctuary again for terrorist groups.
“We need to work together on common challenges and provide the right environment for the repatriation of IDPs to Iraq and Syria, and to also recover the citizens or the diaspora in other countries,” he said.
Speaking at the same press conference, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said that Washington has demonstrated since ending America’s longest war that it would continue to be “focused on our core national security interest in preventing the resurgence of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan, and if necessary, taking action to deal with it.”
“I think we’ve demonstrated quite clearly in recent months our ability to do just that, including eliminating a senior leader of al-Qaida, who was resident in Afghanistan. In addition, we’re working with partners, with neighbors to strengthen the capacity to deal with any terrorism that may be located in Afghanistan and emanating from there,” Blinken said as quoted by the Department of State.
This comes as the Islamic Emirate’s spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said that the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh should not overplay the issue of Daesh in Afghanistan.
“Daesh is not a threat for anyone, and it is being eliminated. Of course, our operations over the past two years have been against their sanctuaries and more than 100 of them have been eliminated,” Mujahid said.
This is as Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had earlier claimed that the US provides strong support to Daesh and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, TASS reported.
