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Daesh activities limited to eastern Afghanistan: Pundit

Wednesday, 22 June 2016 3:20 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 22 June 2016 3:20 PM ]

Afghan policemen look at the site of a bombing attack on a minibus carrying foreign security guards in Kabul on June 20, 2016. (AFP photo)

Press TV has conducted an interview with Fahim Dashti, editor-in-chief of the Kabul Weekly, about warnings made by Iran of the impact of insecurity and terror in Afghanistan on the region.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Give us your assessment of the comments made by the Iranian representative to the UN, which was hovering around the issue of security within Afghanistan.

Dashti: If you’re asking the status of security within Afghanistan, last year most of the people either from the international side or from inside Afghanistan were predicting that this year Taliban will be able to expand their control in several different provinces in the south as well as in the north.

But in the first two years of the year, we have been witnessing that Taliban were not able to do this plus they were defeated in several different fronts, including in the north as well as in the south, the most insecure province of Helmand.

Press TV: Well, Gholamhossein Dehqani, Iran’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, spoke of the issue of the emergence of Daesh branches in Afghanistan, alluding to the emergence of new terrorist groups there. Talk to us about the comments that he made and the outlook that such an issue could have for the security of Afghanistan and also for its neighboring countries as well.

Dashti: The issue of rising of Daesh in Afghanistan is not something new. From at least two years back people are talking about Daesh in Afghanistan, but there are only limited areas in the very east part of Afghanistan, where people say that Daesh is active there.

Otherwise, in other provinces of Afghanistan not in the north, south, central Afghanistan nor in the west, there is no any sign of presence of Daesh yet. But of course, if it rose, if they get momentum inside Afghanistan, Daesh or any other terrorist group, it could be dangerous for the security of Afghanistan as well as its neighbors.

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