US Secretary of State Antony Blinken believes Afghanistan will become a pariah state if the Taliban seizes power in the country that is witnessing a spike in violence as US-led international troops are withdrawing from the country, MSNBC reports.
Blinken noted that the United States is working on ending the decades-long conflict, pointing that Afghanistan will not receive the support from the international community if the Taliban take over the country.
US President Joe Biden earlier this week dismissed allegations that the Taliban is bound to seize control of all of Afghanistan, assuring that the Afghan National Army with its 300,000 well-equipped troops will be able to repel the insurgents.
But according to Taliban representative Zabiullah Mujahid’s claims on Thursday, the movement currently controls approximately 90% of Afghanistan’s border with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Pakistan.
That claim was partly confirmed earlier in the day by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko, who noted that Taliban took almost complete control of the Tajik border after the hasty US withdrawal from Afghanistan with its northern provinces swiftly turning into a new hotspot.
He also warned that the degradation of the security situation in Afghanistan poses a direct threat to Central Asia.
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