The foreign ministers of Russia, China, and Iran and Pakistan Thursday expressed deep concern about the security situation related to terrorism in Afghanistan and noted that all terrorist groups, including ISIL-Khorasan, Al-Qaeda, ETIM, TTP, BLA, and Jaish al-Adl, based in Afghanistan, that pose a serious threat to regional and global security.
This came in a joint statement issued after a meeting in Uzbekistan's Samarkand on Thursday within the framework of a ministerial conference of Afghanistan's neighboring countries.
The ministers discussed steps on facilitating Afghanistan's political settlement, the stabilization of the humanitarian and socio-economic situation in the country as well as the development of regional economic integration, and the implementation of transport and energy projects with Kabul's participation.
The ministers urged the interim government of Afghanistan to take visible and verifiable measures to fight terrorism and eliminate all kinds of terrorist groups to prevent the use of Afghan soil by any terrorist group particularly ISIL-Khorasan, Al-Qaeda, ETIM, TTP, BLA, and Jaish al-Adl.
East Turkestan Islamic Movement
The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) is a Muslim separatist group founded by militant Uighurs, members of the Turkic-speaking ethnic majority in northwest China's Xinjiang province. Xinjiang province, where the group is based, is a vast, sparsely populated area that shares borders with eight countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the first mention of ETIM surfaced around 2000, when a Russian newspaper reported that Osama bin Laden had pledged funds to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and ETIM during a 1999 meeting in Afghanistan.
It seeks an independent state called East Turkestan that would cover an area including parts of Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
The Islamic State - Khorasan
The Islamic State - Khorasan Province is an affiliate of the so-calledIslamic State militant group active in South Asia and Central Asia. ISIS- Khorasan has been active in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, where they claimed attacks.
According to a November 2021 statement of Deborah Lyons, the Secretary-General's Special Representative and Head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), the IS- Khorasan Province became increasingly active in 2020 and 2021 and gained ground across all provinces. Another source stated that IS-KP had a strong presence in eastern Afghanistan (Nangarhar and Kunar provinces), as well as in Kabul and northern Afghanistan.
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