Moscow encourages Taliban to confront ISIS:Russian ambassador in an interview with ILNA /2/
Levan Jagarian” Russian ambassador to Iran in an interview with ILNA correspondent has discussed some of current important issues about regional and international issues, developments and events like Astana summit, drafting Syrian constitutional amendments in Arabic by Russia, prospects of Russia and US militaristic cooperation in Syria and bilateral relations with Iran which is being presented here
The coming excerpt is focused on “ISIS, Taliban and US election.”
ILNA: After trump’s victory, there was news about Russian interference in US election which led to speculations about “information warfare” between Russian and American intelligence services. What was the reason behind that?
JAGARIAN: If we take a look at Obama’s eight years of presidency, we can clearly see that Russia has been on the top list of American unconstructive and negative actions. In this respect, it’s natural that the democrats after the loss of Hillary Clinton in the recent US presidential election, were looking for making scenarios in different dimensions to cover up for their defeat. One of such scenarios is Russian interference in recent election. If a political party or a government is trying to accuse his opposite side or even its enemy, undoubtedly it has to present the related evidences. Democrats’ remark should follow the same logic, which means that if a person or a political party is allegedly claiming that Russia has interfered in 2016 US election then should submit its evidences and documentations. Otherwise all such claims and statements would be lie and untrue.
We shouldn’t forget that some of political figures of EU countries like “Boris Johnson”, British foreign minister, “François Holland” French president and even “Angela Merkel” German chancellor, during election campaign were supporting Clinton and in our view such side taking would be considered a “soft” interference. We even saw such political bias in Ukraine election and we call such policies hypocritical. Everyone remember American intelligence services’s eavesdropping on French and Germany’s leaders phone conversations. At the time, these courtiers refused to react to the scandal and chose to be silent. Such taking side defiantly can be called hypocritical. In this regard, EU countries are blaming Russia for every single thing that is happening in the world. Even if there would be a heavy snow tomorrow and several people lose their lives, it’s not surprising to hear that Russia is being condemned. This is natural since they are in any way trying to demolish Russian image. Of course we can’t ignore Obama’s decisions since his policies weren’t honest. From one point, they tried to bring up the establishing and renewing of relations while at the same time they were operating disruptive actions against us.
In 2010 and during Ukrain’s elections, I was serving as OSCE’s observer in west Ukraine. There I witnessed a healthy election taking place and the result was the election of “viktor yanukovych” as the president. But in late 2013 and early 2014, we saw planning and plotting of a coup for unsettling and disrupting the situation in Ukraine was underway by the US. Such plots were going on only because west’s interests in Kiev were being threatened. In this respect, in what areas and levels, American actions in Ukraine should be evaluated and figured? Aren’t they plotting for a coup?
ILNA: Recently, “Zamir Kabulov”, Putin’s special envoy in Afghanistan had talked about USSR’s mistakes in sending troops to this country and the claims have been reflected in foreign media. In general, what’s Russia’s approach in Afghanistan?
JAGARIAN: Part of this, is related to US defeat in Afghanistan in fight against terrorism. But first of all I have to add that I was in USSR and Russia’s consulate in Herat and then in Russian embassy in Kabul and at that time I experienced a bitter experience. What I witnessed at that time on that region were precisely the same mistakes that the west is making after they have entered Afghanistan in 2001.
ILNA: Meantime, does Russia have any other security concern about Afghanistan?
JAGARIAN: Since Tajikistan and even Uzbekistan’s security are vital for Moscow, of course, there exists such security concern. We have to note that Tajikistan is a military ally for Russia and we have military bases there. In the late 2016, trilateral exchanges between China, Russia and Pakistan were started in Moscow and negotiations would go on. We are trying to convince Iran and India to participate in this event. Some of Taliban’s members in Nangarhar province has signed an oath of allegiance to ISIS and has joined them but so many of them are still loyal to Taliban and are part of the group. Thus, in my view if Taliban confront ISIS and begin fighting them, there’s no problem. However, I’m not saying that Russia should support, rather we just confirm the process and try to encourage it. We stimulate Taliban and try to persuade them to enter the peace negotiations with the national unity government of Afghanistan, since we believe that such a model is far better than letting Taliban and ISIS joining together against Afghanistan government.