Daily reviews Afghanistan’s future after NATO pullout

Tehran, Dec 15, IRNA - An English-language daily on Monday reviewed Afghanistan's future ahead of NATO’s eminent withdrawal from the country. 'Iran Daily' was referring to the assembly of representatives of 70 countries and international organizations in London to discuss Afghanistan’s future ahead of NATO’s eminent withdrawal 13 years after the invasion of the war-stricken country. Elucidating on the issue, the paper recalled the Tokyo conference, which was held two years ago, in which participants from various countries promised to help Afghanistan financially and economically in various fields. In London contributing countries have renewed their commitments to help Afghanistan. Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ebrahim Rahimpour, who attended the meeting, highlighted the need for helping Afghanistan to overcome problems including drug production and smuggling and declared Tehran’s readiness for cooperation in this regard. Afghan officials should focus more on reforming the country’s political administrative, economic and security structures than wining foreign funds, suggested the paper in its Opinion column. The most serious problem of Afghanistan seems to be insecurity and instability which are making it hard for any foreign investment and other activities to help Kabul improve its economy which has huge capacities for boosting. Excessive dependence on foreign forces and political and economic chaos have hampered economic growth and impaired the effectiveness of foreign assistance, it pointed out. As a glaring example, the international community dedicated up to $97 billion during a conference in Bonn in 2001 to reconstruct Afghanistan, but due to rampant political and administrative corruption, the huge fund almost went in vain. Now Afghan officials should make use of their domestic capacities and employ elites to build up the country, wrote the daily. The presence of foreign forces not only will deprive young Afghans from gaining experience and the opportunity to rebuild their country but will also create more crises for Afghanistan because they are not familiar with the people’s culture, underscored the paper, suggesting that Afghan political groups should resolve their differences in order to make use of their own forces. This would speed up the process of reconstruction and foreign aid would be more effective in such a situation, it suggested in conclusion./end