Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Lavrov Spurns US Claims of Russian Bounties

Lavrov Spurns US Claims of Russian Bounties

KABUL - Despite the presence of US and coalition forces in Afghanistan for the past 20 years, the illicit drug commerce has flourished in the war-torn country, claims Russia.
On Friday, the Russia foreign minister called for investigating reports about the possible use of NATO aircraft to traffic drugs in Afghanistan.
TASS news agency quoted Sergey Lavrov as saying: "We keep on receiving reports -- that opiates have been organised from Afghanistan to other countries, including Europe, with the use of NATO military aircraft."
However, he hastened to explain the reports could not be verified 100 percent. But such reports were coming too regularly to be ignored, he remarked.
If military aircraft had flown over Afghanistan, the minister believed, they could have been NATO’s planes and such flights could have been operated only by the military or special services.
“Naturally, such information needs to be probed into, first of all in the United States," said Lavrov, who asked Kabul to probe the reports.
Lavrov also spurned as a sham US intelligence claims of Russians offering the Taliban bounties to kill American troops in Afghanistan.
“The entire story looks like it has been written and designed specifically for the purpose of the domestic political struggle in the run-up to the election,” he said. (Pajhwok)