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World|opinion & analysis|June 12, 2015 / 01:28 PM
Karzai: ISIS would need ‘foreign hand’ to rise in Afghanistan

AKIPRESS.COM - Karzai The rise of the Islamic State in Afghanistan would threaten neighboring Russia and China, but it won’t be possible without the jihadist group receiving foreign backing, Hamid Karzai, former Afghan president, told RT.

Islamic State (IS), called Daesh in Arabic, is “quite alien” to Afghanistan, former President Karzai said when asked how much of a threat he thinks jihadists pose to his country.

Reports earlier this week suggested that between 10 and 12 Taliban fighters had been beheaded by the Islamic State (IS, formerly known as ISIS/ISIL) in the Nangarhar province, at the border with Pakistan. The region is believed to be one of a key targets for jihadists as the organization looks to seize even more territories, adding Afghanistan to taken lands in Iraq and Syria.

However, Karzai believes that IS expansion into Afghanistan would not be possible “without a foreign hand, without a foreign backing.”

But should this happen, “it will only be to go further to Central Asia, to hurt China, to hurt Russia.”

“So, if you hear ever in the coming days, or months, or years that Daesh is on the rise in Afghanistan, and is strong and expanding militarily, it will mean that it is a foreign-backed force intending to destabilize the region, particularly Central Asia, China and Russia,” he added.

Karzai put the blame for the rapid expansion of IS on “foreign interference” in Iraq and Syria saying that it was all “the result of events” there.

Karzai once again criticized the US and its allies for interfering in Afghanistan, saying that the declared war on terror lasted over a decade “without the results that we all expected.”

“Unfortunately, the Afghans suffered heavily in this war on terror, and terrorism and extremism rather than being defeated, or reduced, or eliminated, is steadily and widely on the rise. We have more radicalism today than we ever had before. We have more extremism than we ever had before,” he said.

The ex-president also addressed Washington, urging it to “explain to the world whether they have failed in the war on terror, or if the war on terror has gone out of hand.”

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