More and harder measures must be taken to avoid the Afghanistan crisis from worsening, the permanent representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, Munir Akram, told Xinhua in an interview on Monday.
"We are trying to do all that is possible to help avoid the crisis in Afghanistan," said the veteran diplomat, noting that "the whole international community must join in this effort."
Akram said that the current situation in Afghanistan is both a humanitarian and an economic crisis, facing the possibility of "a total economic collapse."
"If that happens, there is a likelihood of a large-scale outflow of refugees from Afghanistan. And this will of course affect neighboring countries, Pakistan, Iran and other countries, but also the rest of the world, because migration will take place to Europe and to other places," he warned.
"The economic collapse could create chaos and the chaos could lead to a renewed conflict within Afghanistan," he said, adding that an economic collapse "could revert to a conflict situation."
"If it reverts to conflict and chaos, there is a likelihood of the strengthening of criminal behaviors, such as narcotics smuggling, as well as the strengthening of some of the terrorist groups, which are still in Afghanistan," warned the ambassador.
Noting that the crisis could affect the international community, he said that "we have to do everything possible to avoid this crisis."
On the role of Pakistan, Akram said that his country has already committed over 30 million U.S. dollars for humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.
"We have opened our land border for humanitarian assistance to flow through Pakistan to Afghanistan. And the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other donors who are supporting Afghanistan, are transporting the assistance through Pakistan," the ambassador said.
Akram noted that Pakistan has established an air bridge between Islamabad and Kabul to transport urgently needed medicines, food, etc.
Turning to the collective role of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries, Akram said that the Islamic countries have solidarity with Afghanistan, which is a member of the OIC itself.
"They have to join together to help Afghanistan just for the humanitarian needs," he said.
Referring to the humanitarian aid appeal, the senior diplomat said, "we will need at least over 200 million dollars a month to keep Afghanistan from starvation," to ensure the Afghan people have access to energy, food imports and other essential imports into Afghanistan, "which will require more money."
Akram stressed that Afghanistan has been dependent on foreign assistance for the last 20 years. And because this foreign assistance has been cut off, "it is now in a deeper crisis."
"We have to mobilize a sufficient amount of external assistance to feed the Afghan people to prevent disease, to ensure that the economy does not collapse, the banking system can be revived, businesses can be restored, agriculture can be restored, the services for health, education, etc., can be restored, because at the moment, there is no money to pay salaries for civil servants, for teachers, for doctors and health workers," he said.
"We need to mobilize a sufficient degree of support and the Islamic countries will play their part," the envoy said.
"We are hoping that the rest of the international community will play its part in providing such assistance, which is so urgently and desperately needed in Afghanistan," he stressed.
The 17th Extraordinary Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the OIC was held in Pakistan's capital Islamabad over the weekend. The meeting focused on the situation in Afghanistan.
Produced by Xinhua Global Service
