Iranian official blames NATO for killings, destruction in Afghanistan

A senior Iranian foreign ministry official took the NATO responsible for the destruction of Afghanistan and the massacre of the Afghan people, and cited foreign interference as the main cause of insecurities in the war-torn country. "At present Afghanistan's security problem is foreign interference," Head of the Iranian Foreign Ministry's Afghanistan Headquarters Mohsen Pakayeen told FNA on Monday. He also described foreign intervention as the main cause of the Afghan people's misery and displeasure, and said according to the statistical figures presented by an anti-war group in Afghanistan in 2011, due to the NATO war on Afghanistan 56% of the Afghan people are ill, 50% do not have access to healthy and clean water, 42% live under the line of poverty. Pakayeen also reiterated that only in 2010, about 2,300 Afghan people committed suicide for different problems they had in their lives. Most world countries, including Iran, have blamed foreign forces for continued instability in Afghanistan and have called for a complete pullout from the country, which first went under invasion and occupation by the US-led NATO troops in 2001. But the US is seeking to get Kabul's approval for setting up permanent bases in the war-torn country, while the traditional Afghan national assembly (Loya Jirga) in a final resolution in November voiced opposition to the establishment of permanent US bases in the country, and called for an end to night raids by the US military forces under the pretext of search for insurgents. The resolution also said that after 2014 all military operations should be led by the Afghan forces. It added that the US should commit to training and equipping the Afghan armed forces and should help the government build capacity instead of creating any parallel administrative structures - a reference to the joint international military and civilian provincial reconstruction teams now operating around the country.