Afghanistan not ready for NATO-led forces withdrawal: LavrovOctober 9, 2013 - 10:28 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The development of the situation in Afghanistan clearly shows that Afghan security forces will not be in position to take control of law and order in the war-torn country after the withdrawal of NATO-led forces, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, according to RIA Novosti. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which has been fighting the radical Islamist Taliban movement in Afghanistan since 2001, is expected to withdraw from the Central Asian country by the end of 2014, handing over responsibility for security in Afghanistan to local police and military forces. “The closer the date of withdrawal is, the more evidence we have that Afghan security forces are not going to be ready,” Lavrov said in an interview with Russia Today television on Tuesday, Oct 8. “There are serious problems in the security sector, there are problems with the Taliban who do not want to get into the national dialogue with the government, who only want to talk to the Americans, which is unacceptable to the [Afghanistan] government for obvious reasons,” the minister said. Lavrov warned against “playing games” with the Taliban fighters behind the government’s back, saying that it would inevitably lead to a situation where “they would be only interested in taking power one hundred percent, which would be an invitation for another war in Afghanistan.” He reiterated that a political settlement of the situation in Afghanistan is possible only through dialogue that would include all political, ethnic and religious groups working together to form a government of national unity. “Unless we have an inclusive process, I'm not very optimistic about any political solution to the situation in Afghanistan,” Lavrov said. Related links: Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |