MOSCOW. Oct 2 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has announced that during his talks with his Iranian counterpart Ali Shamkhani an agreement was reached on increasing coordination and interaction between the Russian and Iranian defense ministries.
"The situation in Afghanistan is directly influencing our security. Our law-enforcement agencies, including the defense ministries, used to coordinate their moves before and we have agreed to promote this coordination now," Ivanov told journalists on Tuesday.
He said that "Russia and Iran, unfortunately, realized a long time ago what terrorism is." "Both Russia and Iran were and are a target of actions by international terrorists," he said.
"Russia and Iran have been the most active supporters of the Northern Alliance, which is opposing the Afghan Taliban movement," the Russian defense minister said.
"We did and are doing this because we understood a long time ago that the threat of terrorism and drugs comes from Afghanistan," Ivanov said, adding that "the Iranian Armed Forces are suffering losses in the struggle against drug dealers who try to cross into Iran from Afghanistan."
Ivanov said that "Russia would welcome international assistance and humanitarian aid to the Northern Alliance's armed forces." "What is meant here is not a war against Islam, but a struggle against terrorism from which many suffer, including citizens of Afghanistan," he said.
"The problem of an internal political settlement in Afghanistan should be decided by the people of Afghanistan without any external pressure," the Russian defense minister said.