3 Jun 2021, 14:17Updated at: 3 Jun 2021, 15:16

Russian intel chief forecasts worsening of Afghanistan conflict amid degrading situation

Sergey Naryshkin stressed that the situation would be worsening, as the failed US operation is ending in such a resolute flight

VITEBSK, June 3./TASS/. Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Chief Sergey Naryshkin sees the internal conflict in Afghanistan worsening soon.

"Look at what is happening in Afghanistan now. Regretfully, the situation in that country is degrading. This leads to an exacerbation of the internal conflict, we simply predict that this conflict will be flaring up in the near future," Naryshkin told journalists following a joint board meeting of the SVR and the Belarusian State Security Committee (KGB) on Thursday.

He stressed that the conflict in Afghanistan will be worsening "as the failed US operation, named Resolute Support 20 years ago, is ending in such a resolute flight".

"As soon as the troops of foreign nations are withdrawn from Afghanistan, we forecast a degradation of the situation. And we must be ready for this," Naryshkin emphasized.

On April 14, US President Joe Biden announced plans to start the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in May and complete the process by September 11, yet the former Trump administration had signed an agreement with the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) in Doha in February 2020, which said that US and allied troops were to leave the country by May 1, 2021. The Taliban strongly condemned this departure from the agreement, making it quite clear that they considered themselves no longer bound by the obligations under the Doha deal.

A report of the UN Monitoring Team, circulated earlier by CNN, stated that the US troops were leaving Afghanistan at a time when violence in Afghanistan was at its highest level in two decades.

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