SCO Can Play Role in Restoring Security to Afghanistan

A lawmaker said collective measures are needed by regional governments to prevent the security conflict in Afghanistan from worsening, suggesting the Shanghai Cooperation Organization could provide a platform for promoting regional peace.

Speaking in a recent interview with ICANA, Jalil Rahimi said Afghanistan has the potential to become another Iraq or Syria, creating a big headache for Iran and other regional governments.

"In view of the security gap in Afghanistan and lack of calm despite numerous promises by western countries, the ground is prepared for terrorist groups to exploit poverty among the nation and lack of government's control to grow stronger," Rahimi said.  

Afghanistan is still gripped by insecurity after the US and its allies attacked the country as part of Washington's so-called war on terror.

The 2001 attack overthrew the Taliban rule, but the group still controls large swathes of Afghanistan. In recent years, the gradual expansion of the self-styled Islamic State to Afghanistan has further fueled violence and insecurity in the South Asian country.

Rahimi said he believes the SCO could play an effective role in battling terrorism and restoring calm to the war-stricken country, particularly as many neighbors of Afghanistan and two big powers, Russia and China, are its members.

Iran holds observer status in the security bloc since 2005, along with Afghanistan, Belarus and Mongolia.

India and Pakistan officially jointed the bloc earlier this year, in its first expansion in sixteen years after its 2001 creation by China, Russia and four ex-Soviet Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. US President Donald Trump announced the new US strategy on Afghanistan in August, vowing to bring 4,000 American troops into the long-running conflict in Afghanistan.

Some analysts believe the new policy, which is believed to set the stage for a significant escalation of war, is just a repetition of previous policies that failed to end chaos in Afghanistan in the past 16 years.