Iran and Russia warn about IS relocation to Afghanistan
TEHRAN (TCA) — Security chiefs of Iran and Russia have warned about the relocation of remnants of the Daesh Takfiri terror group from their former Middle East strongholds to Afghanistan, Iran’s PressTV news agency reports. Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, and Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Federation’s Security Council, made the remarks at the second meeting of the Regional Security Dialogue conference in Tehran on December 18. The event was also attended by top security officials of China, India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. “Since Daesh’s [Islamic State or IS] defeat in Iraq and Syria, one of the [pressing] security concerns has been the relocation of the defeated Daesh elements from the two countries to Afghanistan,” Shamkhani said. The purpose behind the relocation is providing the terror group with a base for planning, organizing and carrying out acts of terror against the Central Asian country and its neighbors, he added. He named terrorism and radicalism as the most serious challenges facing the region, saying the presence of extra-regional forces in the region are fueling such threats. Russia’s Patrushev said Afghanistan currently hosts between 2,500 and 4,000 Daesh terrorists. Patrushev said the only way out of Afghanistan’s current woes is direct and unconditional talks between the Taliban and the Kabul government. He also referred to the increase in drug production in Afghanistan as one of the principal sources of funding terrorism, and said around $600 million of the funds deriving from drug production and sales go to terrorist outfits in the region each year.
