- Sputnik International
Asia
Find top stories and features from Asia and the Pacific region. Keep updated on major political stories and analyses from Asia and the Pacific. All you want to know about China, Japan, North and South Korea, India and Pakistan, Southeast Asia and Oceania.

US Used Afghan Mission for Boosting Regional Influence - Ex-Kyrgyz President

© AFP 2023 / WAKIL KOHSARUS army and Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers walk as a NATO helicopter flies overhead
US army and Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers walk as a NATO helicopter flies overhead - Sputnik International
Subscribe
The United States used 13 years of its anti-terror Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan as a pretext to expand its influence in Central Asia, former Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev said on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The US-led coalition launched Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in October 2001 in a bid to destroy al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden who was behind 9/11 terror attacks.

"It turned out that they came there for long, that their aims were not limited to extinction of international terrorists in Afghanistan. Their main goal was to gain foothold in Central Asia in a bid to solve their geopolitical problems," Akayev told RIA Novosti.

He added that the operation in Afghanistan enabled Washington to cut China from potential routes of oil deliveries from the Persian Gulf.

"One of the pipelines could connect it [China] through Afghanistan and Iran with the [Persian] Gulf. The United States did not want China to get hold of such simple, direct way to fuel," Akayev said.

US Secretary of State John Kerry (2nd L) delivers remarks at the Central Asia Ministerial at the Department of State in Washington, US August 3, 2016. - Sputnik International
US-Central Asian Foreign Ministers' Meeting: What's the US Up to in the Region?
The US-led anti-terror mission aimed to make terrorism in Central Asia a political tool rather than to uproot it, Akayev said, blaming Washington for the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan.

Operation Enduring Freedom concluded in December 2014.

Akayev was Kyrgyz president in 1990-2005. He was ousted from power in 2005 by the Tulip Revolution and currently resides in Russia, where he is engaged in scientific work.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала