Afghans unhappy with US spy activities

Iran also says the whole affair is further proof that foreign military presence in Afghanistan is posing serious threats to the entire region.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Abdul Hamid Noorzad, journalist and political analyst, to share his opinion on this issue.

Following is a transcript of the interview:

Press TV: Now Mr. Noorzad, Iran has been saying since you are in Afghanistan, let's put Afghanistan question on this as well, Iran has been saying the incident of the drone that was been captured by Iran just shows how the war in Afghanistan, the foreign presence in Afghanistan is posing a threat to neighboring countries including Iran. So what do you think about that?

Noorzad: Thank you very much. First of all, we here in Afghanistan, we also the people of Afghanistan and even the government of Afghanistan are not happy with the incident which occurred in the space of Iran.

Actually when the Afghanistan ambassador was summoned in Tehran, here the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan said that they will look into the incident.

Actually if we look at the mandate of international forces here in Afghanistan, the main aim and the main target of international forces including the American forces are to fight against terror inside Afghanistan and they are not allowed to go through the border or to airspace in any foreign countries and any neighboring countries of Afghanistan.

Because here in Afghanistan the government believes that the international troops should not be posed any threat to our neighboring countries. Because we lived side by side with our neighbors and we want [to] live side by side with our neighbors. That here the people of Afghanistan and also the government would not accept such an incident.

Press TV: Mr. Noorzad, when we are connecting now the dots between what the US military forces are doing in Afghanistan, how this is going to affect Iran and Pakistan as well?
Now, we know that Leon Panetta has visited Kabul and this comes at a time when Pakistan has been sending forces it says along the border with Afghanistan because of that attack on its forces that killed Pakistani soldiers.

So with relations with Pakistan now quite tense, what was Leon Panetta's visit to Kabul do you think about?

Noorzad: Of course the Leon Panetta trip to Kabul comes in a time when the situation and the relation between Islamabad and Washington are intense. I believe that whenever this incident take place in the moment, agency and the Pakistan government turned off the NATO forces convoy that they are carrying food for NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Of course this matter worries the United States here in Afghanistan, because it is more than three weeks that the NATO trucks and the American fuel trucks are inside Pakistan and they are not allowed to come in Afghanistan.

Of course, the United Sates worries that it would affect on the war against terror.

Beside this, as you know there was an international conference in Bonn that Pakistan did not take part in that conference and it was against the national interest of Afghanistan because if this kind of incident does not occurred, of course Pakistan would take part in that conference and this case also it was affected Afghan national interest also.

So I believe that Leon Panetta would try to ease the tension between Islamabad and Washington. Of course, here I believe and the Afghan government must talk with the American Defense Minister that this kind of incident that took place for example in Iran space or inside Pakistan should be stopped or at least for example here we believe that the terrorist sanctuaries are outside Afghanistan specially in the tribal areas.

So whenever there are any kind of attack that must be coordinated with the Pakistani soldiers and with the Pakistani government because otherwise if...

Press TV: Mr. Noorzad, I am just going to tell you about a report that we have been getting today, and that is a plan to retain the controversial local militia program as a long-term program. And that is while human right groups in Afghanistan have been saying that members of this militia have been violating human rights, they have been raping women, forcing communities out of their homes, recruiting children but there is still not enough reports about what the Afghan government has been saying about this.

Is there a disagreement about the presence of the militia and about the long-term presence of American forces between America and the Afghan government?

Noorzad: Of course whenever the United States and the NATO forces wanted to recruit these kind of police in Afghanistan, there was a huge disagreement among Afghan people.

But still Afghan people believe that instead of establishing this kind of unit, the international community must support the legal police and legal army inside Afghanistan that the Afghan national police and Afghan national army for sustainable peace and security could be positive and could be effective.

But now it is for two or three years that the public protection police have been made in the local areas so still it would be about more than 25,000 local police in Afghanistan that they are recruited and they are trained by the international security forces here in Afghanistan.

Of course there are some claims that some of these police [officers] are violating human rights. They are misusing from their power and of course they are bothering Afghan people in some areas. But again the Afghan Interior Ministry says that they are trying to reform these kind of police and they will try to stop these, if there is any.