Cautious approach needed to consider Taliban for Afghan elections - Russian drug control chief
MOSCOW. April 3 (Interfax) - A cautious approach is needed when considering participation of a Taliban representative in presidential elections in Afghanistan, but a political process in the country is necessary, Russian Federal Drug Control Service Chief Viktor Ivanov said.
"It is probably necessary to approach this cautiously. But a peaceful settlement process is needed badly. The presence of foreign forces does not solve the declared task there, but on the contrary, serves as a destabilizing factor," Ivanov told Interfax on Wednesday.
Leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Omar, will be able to participate in the presidential elections scheduled to be held in Afghanistan in 2014, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview published recently in Suddeutsche Zeitung. The Afghan president said: "[Mullah Omar] can be a presidential candidate and let Afghan people vote for or against him."
"The Afghan Constitution is designed for all citizens of the country and Taliban activists have to benefit from it as well," Karzai said.
The Russian drug control chief has criticized the United States and NATO numerous times amid insufficient measures to fight heroin production in Afghanistan. Ivanov said that Russia has become number one Afghan heroin user.
