Terrorists’ goals beyond Afghanistan: Afghan envoy in Iran

TEHRAN (Pajhwok): In a veiled reference to Pakistan, the Afghan ambassador in Iran has said regional countries should not categorize terrorist groups into ‘bad’ and ‘good’, stressing these groups are only bad.

Dr. Nasir Ahmad Noor, the Afghan envoy in Tehran, told the Iranian media in an interview that peace and stability in Afghanistan was important not only for his own country, but for the entire region.

Noor criticized the role of some of regional and neighboring countries in the fight against terrorism and said: “There is no good or bad terrorism, these countries should take action against rebel groups and support the Afghan government in this battle.”

He insisted the goals of terrorist groups were not confined to Afghanistan only, but their target areas included neighboring and regional countries.

“Afghanistan is fighting this phenomenon on behalf of others and it suffers huge casualties and financial losses on a daily basis, therefore it would be the best way for regional countries to back Afghanistan in this regard”, he added.

The Afghan envoy said regional countries should also dismantle safe havens, training centers and financial resources of militants on their territories so it would lead to peace and stability in Afghanistan and the region.

About Taliban and Daesh presence in Afghanistan, he said, “Terrorist groups who are active in Afghanistan have the same ideology, activities and goals, around 20 terrorist groups are operating in our country and almost all of them are empowered from outside.”

To a question how would he differentiate between Daesh and other rebel groups, he said: “The groups who previously operated under the Taliban flag are now operating under Daesh flag, they only changed the color of their flag, not their activities.”

He said the presence of militant groups in Afghanistan had foreign factors and Afghanistan would continue to suffer until those factors remained.

mds/ma