Afghan govt rebuffs claims of US, UK intelligence bases on Afghan soil

Monitoring Desk

KABUL: The spokesperson for Afghanistan’s interim government, Zabiullah Mujahid has denied Russia’s claim of establishment of US and UK intelligence bases in Afghanistan, Tolo News reported.

“We call on the countries to not pursue their rivalries in Afghanistan. They should attempt to do their competition outside of Afghan borders. Afghanistan is not a ground for the regional competition,” he said, adding that no country will be allowed to use the Afghan soil against other countries.

His statement came after Russian Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov said that US and British intelligence services were active in fomenting a belt of instability in Afghanistan near the southern borders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, where the outlawed Al-Qaeda and Islamic State were being reinforced, Russian News Agency TASS reported.

Bortnikov had said that the US and NATO have “precisely now, under the guise of containing the Afghan terrorist threat, begun actively foisting their services for military, technical, and border security assistance on our [CIS] partners among the Central Asian republics,” it added.

“We are confident that their goal is to militarily colonise the CIS space and introduce new lines of division between [CIS member states],” Bortnikov stated.

Toreq Farhadi, a political analyst, said that Moscow is seeking to promote propaganda against Washington.

“Russia is in a propaganda war with the US. These remarks are not correct. Afghanistan is an independent country, and it can get close to any country it wants to,” he said.

In the past, Russia has repeatedly accused the US of trying to destabilise Afghanistan and the region.