(MENAFN- Asia Times)
Top Russian diplomat Zamir Kabulov said over the weekend that Moscow is ready to sit down with Washington to discuss cooperation on Afghanistan.
The development comes despite speculation that the US is enabling the destabilization of the region. In its on the Russian diplomat's statements on Saturday, Turkish news outlet Yeni Safak recalled former Afghan President Hamid Karzai's October with Russia's RT, during which Karzai pointed the finger at the US for the ISIS buildup in the country.
'Since the arrival of Daesh [an Arabic acronym for ISIS] on the Afghan scene,' the US has taken no action against them, Karzai said.
'From the two years onwards to today, every day the local people, the local elders, government officials, media and others began to report that unmarked helicopters, unmarked foreign helicopters, would go in and support extremists in all parts of the country,' he added.
Special envoy Kabulov said in his comments over the weekend that the number of ISIS militants in Afghanistan has now grown to 10,000.
Canadian organization Global Research in July that Washington's efforts to destabilize the region stretch into Pakistan, a key segment of China's Belt and Road Initiative. The paper states that disrupting China's economic lifelines is an open objective of US policy makers, citing multiple papers published by US think tanks.
Research from the Strategic Studies Insitute of the US Army's War College stated as far back as 2006 that:
Foreign policy realists, citing history and political theory, argue that inevitably China will challenge American primacy and that it is a question of 'when' and not 'if' the U.S.-China relationship will become adversarial or worse.
The Global Research report suggests that the US has aims to foment independence movements in Pakistan's Baluchistan province, the location of the port of Gwadar, an important lynch pin in China's Belt and Road Initiative. Additionally, Washington would like to conflate separatist and other extremist groups with ISIS as a way of disassociating militants from the United States:
Previously, the United States has attempted to use a variety of local groups to foment political instability and violence. Now it appears that all of its geopolitical mischief is being lumped under the catch-all, the 'Islamic State.' In reality, the militants who kidnapped and murdered the two Chinese teachers in Baluchistan, Pakistan, were likely local militants the US has been backing for years, and whose role in destabilizing Pakistan is increasingly understood by local and global audiences. Assigning blame to the Islamic State appears to be a means of disassociating America from the violence it is intentionally fueling across the region.
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