Humiliating escape from Afghanistan sign of global decline in US power: Qalibaf

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, says the recent humiliating escape of the US forces from Afghanistan was a sign of deteriorating international power of the United States and proved that trusting a country’s security to the US is a strategic error.

“Various political analysts from across the globe have asserted that the humiliating escape of the US army [from Afghanistan] is a clear sign of declining international clout of the United States,” he said while reflecting on the ongoing situation in the war-torn country in his address to an open session of the Iranian legislature on Sunday.

“Giving up the country by the US-backed government in Afghanistan and easy takeover of the entire country by the Taliban was a result of widespread dissatisfaction with 20 years of US occupation and inaction of the US administration. This development proved without a speck of doubt that the trust put in the United States by some Afghan statesmen, who believed the US would bring progress and security to their country, was a strategic mistake,” Iran's parliament speaker said.

“Twenty years after the establishment of a US-backed government and despite all slogans and images created, the country not only did not experience any tangible progress in economic infrastructure and public welfare, but was also devoid of the most basic needs of a civil society, that is, security,” Qalibaf noted.

He reaffirmed Iran’s support for the religious and human rights of Afghan people from all racial and religious backgrounds, adding that Iranians want to see countrywide and sustainable security in Afghanistan.

"What the Islamic Republic wants [in Afghanistan] conforms to what the Afghan people want," Iran's top legislator said.

SS