Afghan Refugees Hold U.S. Responsible for Worsening Security, Economy

Date: 23 May 2022 - 21:46

News ID: ۱۰۲۸۹۳

TEHRAN (Xinhua) – Battered and bruised by hardships, Abdollah Saebi, an Afghan in his late 40s, looks much older than his age.
A former teacher and farmer in Afghanistan, Saebi is now a refugee earning a living in the Iranian capital of Tehran as a watchman to support his family with four daughters and two sons.
Saebi became a refugee in 2021 when he was forced to flee to neighboring Iran amid the surging violence and instability in his home country following the chaotic U.S. military pullout in August 2021 to end its 20 years of occupation.
According to the estimates released by the Iranian media, more than 3 million Afghans are living in Iran, including 780,000 refugees.
As a witness to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Saebi held Washington accountable for the deteriorating security and economy in his home country.
After the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 in New York, the U.S. launched the so-called war on terror in Afghanistan under the pretext of pursuing Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the terror attacks.
However, despite its claims of seeking to ensure peace in Afghanistan, the U.S. has neither improved the security in the country nor ended the terrorism throughout its 20 years of occupation, said Saebi.
“The U.S. presence solely led to an escalation in violence and terrorism in Afghanistan,” Saebi noted, recalling the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, during which one of his brothers was killed by the Daesh terrorist group.
“The terror group (Daesh) has been created by the United States,” he said, adding “the United States is behind the murder of Afghan people and plunder of their resources.”
On the 2021 “irresponsible and chaotic” U.S. pullout from Afghanistan, Saebi described it as “worse than the U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.”
“The U.S. always seeks to sow discord and provoke divisions, and turn different ethnic and religious groups against each other in order to control them, plunder their resource and safeguard the U.S. own interests,” he said.
In the eyes of Maqsoud Majidi, another Afghan refugee in Iran, the 20 years of U.S. occupation had “made everybody’s life (in Afghanistan) miserable” by ruining the economy.
“Ever since I can remember, there have always been conflicts in Afghanistan,” said the 17-year-old boy who was born after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.