The West intends to avoid providing significant humanitarian aid to Afghanistan even further, said Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev.
The Argumenty i Fakty newspaper published previously unpublished excerpts of Patrushev's August 19 speech at a meeting of secretaries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states' security councils in Tashkent on Tuesday; the authenticity of the quotes was confirmed to TASS by the Russian Security Council office.
"We see that the West intends to continue to avoid providing the country (Afghanistan - TASS) with substantial humanitarian aid. They block illegally frozen Afghan assets instead of directing them to humanitarian needs under the control of the UN.
It looks cynical that Washington reserved half of these funds for the compensation claims of relatives of the victims of terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in which the Afghan people are known not to be involved at all," Patrushev said.
According to his words quoted in the publication, taking into account the growing crisis trends on the global food market caused, among other things, by the unprecedented anti-Russian sanctions, the percentage of the starving population in Afghanistan may soon reach a catastrophic point.
The secretary of the Russian Security Council pointed out that the Americans and the British also create obstacles to the resumption of normal operations of Afghan financial operators with the international banking system. He called on Washington to immediately unblock the illegally frozen Afghan assets in order to develop social and community projects in Afghanistan.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: tpsdave/Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS