Current Afghan economy empowering terrorists: Farid

AVA- Nahid, who is in Tehran, Iran’s capital, to attend the Tehran Security Conference. Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the meeting, she said Afghanistan’s economy was also used by terrorist groups to empower themselves like Taliban whose roots lied outside of the country.

She said economy could lead to peace and stability but it could also negatively impact the security.

“Afghanistan is enjoying a democratic law for ۱۷ years, but the conflict is still ongoing because our economy is empowering terrorist groups such as Taliban whose roots are outside,” she said.

She said current economy in the region was the “economy of terror” as rebel groups were trying to get benefit from energy and petroleum using them against governments.

Farid said some people in Afghanistan were joining militant groups because of their bad economic condition. “If regional countries assist Afghanistan in its development, it would help improve regional security.”

“Afghanistan has received $۹۰۰ billion for fighting against terrorism, but without any significant results, if this amount had been used for the development of Afghanistan, I believe we would not have these current problems,” she said.

She stressed: “We had and are witnessing proxy wars in Afghanistan that do not belong to the Afghan people, we are in fact in the front line of the war against terrorism and we need regional cooperation.”

The second Tehran Security Conference was held on Monday. Former Afghan spy chief, Amrullah Saleh and lawmaker Nahid Farid also attended the conference.

Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Jawad Zarif, during the opening of the conference, said despite suffering defeats in the past two year Daesh and other rebel groups remained active.

He stressed no country should try to destabilize their neighbors in order to ensure security for themselves.