MOSCOW, December 9. /TASS/. NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who told the UN Security Council last Friday the operation by the alliance and its partners in Afghanistan had been a success, clearly set a fresh example of wishful thinking, the deputy director of the Institute of US and Canada Studies, Major-General Pavel Zolotaryov, told TASS.
“Even if one admits that the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan performed well enough at first by ousting the Taliban movement from power in Kabul, it must be remembered that the United States owed that success largely to Russia. After the 9/11 attacks on New York, when the United States was about to launch its anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan, NATO’s alliance was still “slumbering in peace,” and it was Moscow that had managed to come to terms with Afghan field commander Ahmad Shah Massoud and arm his supporters, thus contributing to the victory over the Taliban,” Zolotaryov said.