US, UK, Israel seeking to provoke sectarian war in Afghanistan: Analyst

The United States, Britain and Israel are seeking to create chaos and provoke a sectarian war in Afghanistan in an attempt to destabilize the country, says an analyst.

Political commentator Edward Corrigan made the remark in an interview with Press TV on Friday, following the latest attack on a Shia mosque in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar, which left at least 33 people dead and scores of others injured.

“Of course, it is very tragic, and it is clear that somebody is trying to provoke a sectarian war between the Shias and the Sunnis. Who is going to benefit from that is the ultimate question,” Corrigan said.

“There is evidence that the British, the Americans, and the Israelis have been setting up bombs trying to provoke a conflict between the Shias and the Sunnis... Perhaps that same tactic is being employed in Afghanistan, where you have the British and the American agents trying to provoke a civil war to pit the Sunni and the Shia and to then help destabilize the country,” he added.

He also described the situation in Afghanistan as “very dangerous,” stressing that the Taliban need to find who is behind these attacks.

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He said that if the situation is not brought under control quickly, there is a chance that sectarian war will return to Afghanistan, which is neither in the interest of the Taliban nor the Shia population of the country.

Corrigan said that extremist groups linked to the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group who are active in Afghanistan might benefit from these attacks as well, adding that they are only interested in chaos.

However, he opined that it could be the CIA, the British intelligence agency MI6, or possibly even the Israelis who are trying to stir problems and create chaos and destruction in Afghanistan, stressing that if that’s the case, the Taliban need to get to the root cause, solve it, and eliminate the source of the problem and bring peace back to Afghanistan.

Corrigan also stated that the US occupation of Afghanistan as well as the messy withdrawal of foreign troops from the country is clearly a big part of the problems that the Afghans are facing now.

He said that the United States and their NATO allies destroyed the infrastructure as well as the social and cultural structure of Afghanistan, stressing that the people of Afghanistan got little or no benefit from 20 years of American occupation of the country.

The analyst further emphasized the need to build social, economic and political structures that combine the various ethnic and religious groups in Afghanistan so they could work with each other.

Taliban vow punishment as death toll from Shia mosque blast mounts

The Taliban have pledged punishment for those behind Friday

Elsewhere in his remarks, Corrigan said the US is seeking to create chaos in Afghanistan in order to be able to put pressure on the new Taliban government to extract some economic concessions.

He also pointed out that the mineral resources in Afghanistan were the main reason the United States occupied the country in the first place.

When asked about the hints of the existing level of coordination between the US and Daesh in Afghanistan, Corrigan said this was the policy which was pursued in Syria and Iraq, adding that in the long-term, these policies have failed.

However, he said, the elements within the CIA that happen to be playing the Daesh card in order to create problems in those countries may be trying to use the same policies in Afghanistan, which have caused a lot of destruction and death as a consequence.

There have been several attacks in Afghanistan in recent weeks, some of which have been claimed by a Daesh affiliate.

The Taliban took power in Afghanistan in mid-August, as the US was in the middle of a troop withdrawal from the country. The Taliban announced the formation of a caretaker government on September 7.

The Taliban first ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, when the United States invaded the country and toppled the Taliban-run government on the pretext of fighting terrorism following the September 11 attacks in the US.

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