Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani made the remarks in a meeting with his Afghan counterpart Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi on Thursday on the sidelines of the 10th meeting of Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) currently underway in Istanbul.
During the meeting, Larijani highlighted the significance of sustainable security in Afghanistan, adding “the situation in the region gives warning signs that some difficulties may plague Afghanistan, therefore we are looking to establish security in this country.”
The Afghan parliament speaker, for his part, said the security of Afghanistan is important for other countries in the region, adding “ISIL and the Taliban are operating under one umbrella but a different cover; our concern at the moment that ISIL will move toward Afghanistan after their defeat in Syria and Iraq.”
He went on to state that the US only appears to have declared war on ISIL, but in reality it only seeks to fan the flames of conflicts in the region; "we are currently in trouble with lack of airborne military equipment, while the Americans engage ISIL any time they want and sometimes will simply bypass the terrorists,” he added.
“It is imperative that the neighboring countries cooperate with sincerity with Afghanistan so that we can effectively confront the terrorist groups,” Ibrahimi stressed.
The 10th meeting of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly is currently underway in Istanbul from Nov. 21-24, 2017 under the motto “Sustaining Peace and Development in Asia”. Established in 2007 as continuation of an organization born in 1999, the APA currently comprises of 41 Member Parliaments and 17 observers.
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