Nebenzya: only Afghans can decide the fate of their country

10 September 2021

 

Only the Afghans themselves can decide on the fate of their country, Russian permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, said on Thursday, speaking at the Security Council meeting on Afghanistan.


"What has happened shows that Afghan society doesn't accept outside control of its development path. Only the Afghans themselves can decide the fate of their country. These decisions should be made on an inclusive basis and should take into account the interests of all sectors of society and all ethnic groups, of course, while ensuring the rights of women and respect for basic human rights," he said.


As Nebenzya noted, Russia expects the Afghan government to reflect the interests of all the people. "New power structures are being formed. We have hoped and still hope that they will be inclusive and reflect the interests of the whole Afghan people and all ethnopolitical forces," he said. According to the diplomat, this is "a guarantee of achieving peace in the country".


Russia expects Afghanistan to get access to its frozen financial assets, Nebenzya said. "The country is on the verge of financial and economic collapse. Further degradation of the socio-economic and humanitarian situation does not bode well. On the contrary, it will inevitably lead to destabilization and, as a consequence, to the complication of the immigration situation in the region and the world as a whole. We expect that access to all frozen Afghan assets will be opened," he said.

 

 

Drug trafficking problems


Russia hopes that the problem of drug production and transportation from Afghanistan will be solved by the country's new authorities, Nebenzya said.


"Afghanistan is still the largest supplier of opiates in the world, more than two-thirds of the provinces produce drugs <...>. It is obvious that the efforts of the previous government were clearly not enough to fight this evil, moreover, the scale of growing drugs has multiplied. We expect that the new authorities will be able to solve this problem, as they say, ridding the region of drug threat coming from Afghanistan," he said.


The Russian diplomat also pointed to "the traditionally narrow coverage of this topic" in the UN Secretary General's report.


Delivering humanitarian aid


Russia assumes that the UN has no serious problems with the delivery of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, but calls on donors to assist Kabul not in words but in deeds, Nebenzya said.


"At this stage, it is necessary first of all to focus on the most urgent problems, connected first of all with rendering humanitarian assistance to all those in need. According to our information, there are no serious problems of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan," he said. - "We're working steadily to reach out to the new authorities across the country to improve humanitarian access. It's important that we support the efforts of the humanitarian community first of all financially".


"We expect that the key donors will provide the necessary assistance for social and economic reconstruction of Afghanistan not by word of mouth but by deed," the diplomat noted.


According to Nebenzya, despite endless financial inflows and foreign military presence for more than twenty years, "the issues of poverty and food insecurity in Afghanistan have still not been resolved." "The solution of these problems in the current conditions is complicated by, among other things, the elementary lack of financial resources," the Russian permanent representative said.

 

 

GSV "Russia - Islamic World"

Photo: Zuma \ TASS

Based on materials from TASS