Appeal to President Donald J. Trump

INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF HUMANITARIAN

COOPERATION WITH THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF

AFGHANISTAN

Enduring Freedom - Resolute Support - Enduring Peace

President Donald J. Trump                                                                                         Moscow, Russia

The White House                                                                                March 5, 2018

“You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.”

— President Ronald Reagan, October 27, 1964

Dear President Trump:           

The largest and most complex challenges facing civilization in the twenty-first century are international terrorism, the growing threat of religious extremism, and the expanding drug epidemic.

To effectively combat them, we need concerted action by all countries and peoples of the world.

Today, Afghanistan, which became a planetary center of heroin production and the "zone of chaos", represents an enormous threat to international peace and security.

In recent months, despite all the efforts made, the situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate.

Unfortunately, relations between Russia and the United States are going through hard times, and the restoration of mutual confidence between our two countries in the current situation may be possible only on the basis of cooperation in solving problems significant for both sides.

Today, Russia and the United States have a unique opportunity to achieve progress in bilateral re-lations.

The whole world expects urgent joint action by the two powers in the fight against the terrorist threat.

It's high time for all of us to realize that there is no military solution to the Afghan problem, and in today's situation it is extremely important to search for alternative approaches and ways to achieve peace and stability in Afghanistan.

Refraining from support or criticism of any Government, we could contribute to the establishment of the long-awaited peace in the war weary beautiful country – Afghanistan.

Please support our initiatives - to form an international humanitarian coalition "Enduring Peace" and to conduct an international humanitarian conference on Afghanistan that would be in the interests of all parties to the Afghanistan conflict.

We would hope that common sense will prevail and our countries will soon return to the policy of strategic partnership.

Sincerely,

Professor Ashot G. Sarkisian, Chairman of the independent International Committee of Humanitarian Cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, President of the Russian Medical Association, Former Member of the Russian Parliament