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Taliban can stabilize Afghanistan if left to its own devices — FSB director

"Undoubtedly, we cannot but be concerned about what is happening in this country," Alexander Bortnikov said, adding that "positive trends should be noted"

BISHKEK, May 24. /TASS/. The radical Taliban movement (banned in Russia) is fully capable of restoring order in Afghanistan, assuming external actors do not meddle in its affairs, Alexander Bortnikov, director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) told a CIS security meeting in Bishkek.

Attempts to consolidate and expand the influence of terrorist networks and branches of international terrorist organizations (ITOs) in the Afghan-Pakistani zone are a big threat to CIS security, he said at a meeting of the Council of Heads of National Security Enforcement Agencies and Special Services of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). "Undoubtedly, we cannot but be concerned about what is happening in this country. On the one hand, positive trends should be noted. The Afghan authorities are actively working on normalizing the situation, they’re countering against odious terrorist organizations, seeking to strengthen external borders in order to reduce the infiltration of militants from regional conflict zones. They are in dialogue with us - I am speaking about the special services of the CIS," the FSB director said.

"And if external players do not interfere with Kabul, the Taliban, I believe, will be able to restore order in the country," he said.

"On the other hand, we see persistent attempts by the Anglo-Saxons to influence the situation in Afghanistan. Hence their intentions to gain a foothold in Central Asia by any means and use this platform to influence the entire region," the FSB director noted, referring to external threats to the security of the CIS countries.

"Of course, with so much at stake, any means necessary are used. Hence the constant rotation of militants in the Syrian-Iraqi and Afghan-Pakistani zones, the emergence of new training camps for militants near the southern borders of the Commonwealth," he said. Meanwhile, the FSB director called efforts to find common ground in countering international terrorism with the new authorities in Afghanistan a "positive trend.".