The Secretary-General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Stanislav Zas, confirmed that the Russian forces of the CSTO peacekeeping forces have already arrived in Kazakhstan and begun to carry out the tasks.
Zass, in statements to Sputnik, said that “routinely, all our member states with their teams have expressed their readiness to participate in the peacekeeping operation in Kazakhstan, and the transfer of troops has already begun. The advance team of the Russian part of the peacekeeping unit is already in Kazakhstan and has begun to carry out the assigned tasks.”
He added that “the first batch of Belarusian peacekeeping forces of the Collective Security Treaty Organization has been sent to Kazakhstan and will arrive in the republic within two to three hours.”
The Secretary-General of the organization concluded that “the transfer of all CSTO peacekeeping forces to the republic must be completed by Friday.” “The duration of the organization’s peacekeeping forces in Kazakhstan depends on the development of the situation and the decision of the authorities there,” said the Secretary-General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. “The number of the CSTO peacekeeping forces to be sent to Kazakhstan will reach 2,500 people and may increase if necessary,” he added.
For his part, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric confirmed that “the Collective Security Treaty Organization informed the United Nations today to send troops to Kazakhstan to work on stabilizing the situation in the country.”
In this context, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh stressed that “as we mentioned earlier, stability and security are of special importance in Kazakhstan, so we hope that the process of restoring peace to this country will be accelerated as much as possible.” He explained that “the current developments in Kazakhstan are an internal affair, but some external parties are exploiting the situation to provoke unrest and destabilize this country.”
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman expressed his confidence that “the Kazakh government and people who are conscious and neighbor to Iran through internal unity will respond appropriately to foreigners’ efforts to destabilize their country.”
A few days ago, protests erupted in the western regions of Kazakhstan against the backdrop of a government decision to raise gas prices, and despite the government’s announcement that it would reconsider its decision after the demonstrations occurred, the demonstrations did not subside but spread to other parts of the country.
The protests in Kazakhstan over the past two days turned into violent clashes between demonstrators and security forces, which led to deaths and injuries on both sides, prompting President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to dismiss the government and declare a state of emergency across the country. The CSTO states also announced sending peacekeeping forces to Kazakhstan after President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev appealed to the leaders of the CSTO’s member states to help his country overcome what he described as the “terrorist threat”.
Source: Sputnik