News - World: Pope Francis has denounced the United States over its two-decade-long war in Afghanistan as an outsider's attempt to impose democracy on the country ignoring the traditions of the local people.

Asked during a recent interview about the new political map forming in Afghanistan in the wake of the US withdrawal, Pope replied that he would prefer to answer the question by referring to a quote from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom he said was “one of the world’s greatest political figures.”

“It is necessary to put an end to the irresponsible policy of intervening from outside and building democracy in other countries, ignoring the traditions of the peoples,” the Pope said.

That quote mentioned by Pope Francis, however, was from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

During a joint press conference between Putin and Merkel on August 20, the Russian president conveyed the same remarks.

“It’s necessary to stop the irresponsible policy of enforcing its own values on others and attempts to build democracy in other countries based on outside models without taking into account historic, ethnic and religious issues and fully ignoring other people’s traditions,” Putin said.

Source: Press TV