Zakharova: Russia hopes Taliban will keep promises to respect human rights

17 September 2021


Afghanistan doesn't need cynical admonitions from the West regarding human rights, Russia hopes that the Taliban (banned in Russia) will keep its promises in this sphere. Maria Zakharova, director of the Russian foreign ministry's information and press department, said at a briefing on Thursday.


"We have paid attention to the fact that the Taliban have announced their intention to guarantee public order in the country, a general amnesty for government officials, respect for women's rights within the Islamic legal system, and respect for the rights of journalists," she said. - "We assume that the practical steps will be in line with their promises. What strikes most of all is the cynicism with which statements are made by Western partners who are now remotely telling the Afghans how to live but have no clear idea what to do with what they themselves have done".


According to the diplomat, the citizens of Afghanistan are in distress because they have "become hostages of the gross mistakes of the Western coalition," whose actions have resulted in many innocent civilian casualties and no one knows the exact number of those casualties. "Yes, 20 years ago the operation of the United States, NATO and the coalition began as an operation under the mandate of the UN Security Council, but then there is no trace of this mandate in principle," Zakharova stated. - "When will these same Western "teachers" start working on their own mistakes? When will they themselves respect human rights in the countries against which they intervene?"


"The most important thing now is the political process, which we talk about tirelessly," summarized the official spokeswoman of the Russian foreign ministry. - "This is the only way to prevent everything - from the general misery of Afghanistan and the region to the observation of the rights of each individual citizen. The interests of citizens represented in political structures must be taken into account in this political process".

 

 

GSV "Russia - Islamic World"

Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry

Based on materials from TASS