TEHRAN- Despite claiming to be fighting terrorism, an Iranian diplomat asserted that Washington's primary motivation for invading Afghanistan was to restrain the neighbors of the Asian nation.

Speaking with Al-Alam TV on Friday, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, president’s special envoy on Afghanistan affairs, said that “Americans came to Afghanistan on the pretext of battling terrorism, but their major purpose was to restrict and control the neighboring countries.” 

In addition, Kazemi Qomi was recently named Iran's acting ambassador to Kabul when Bahador Aminian's term in that position expired.

He said that the first justification for picking Afghanistan for the invasion was the presence of Al-Qaeda, which had moved to the country following the 9/11 attacks.

The envoy said that Americans are carrying out their goals through occupation and military presence, with al-Qaeda acting as a proxy to complete its given tasks.

He warned that the U.S. is "seeking to promote its aims in Afghanistan through this proxy war," stating that "Americans imported Daesh to Afghanistan."

Despite the fact that no Afghan person was engaged in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. soil, the American officials decided to attack Afghanistan in October 2001. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans were killed in the wake of the U.S. incursion. 

For over two decades, American soldiers had occupied Afghanistan under the guise of suppressing the Taliban. However, when U.S. forces departed Afghanistan, the Taliban, weakened by continuous foreign occupation, swept into Kabul in August of last year.

On August 8, 2021, the Taliban grabbed control of Kabul and announced the Afghan conflict to be over. After former President Ashraf Ghani departed the country, the militants stormed the presidential residence.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans killed as a result of the U.S. war on the nation, and the country's imprudent exit is also causing a humanitarian catastrophe in the war-torn country.