'US wants Afghanistan to replace Russian AK-47s with its weapons'

Moscow [Russia]: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that the United States wants Afghanistan to replace 50,000 Russian AK-47 with its weapons.

The Tass news agency quoted Lavrov as saying on Friday, "The Americans insist that 50,000 Kalashnikov rifles with munitions that were handed over to the Afghan security forces free of charge be removed from operational use and Afghanistan buy US-made rifles and submachine guns instead."

"Along with a question where these 50,000 rifles are to go, we have another: what is the reason behind these plans to strip the Afghan army of the possibility to use weapons it is accustomed to and to make it use what it is yet to get comfortable with," Lavrov added.

Earlier, the U.S. had asked the Afghan government to replace the Russian choppers with the U.S.-made helicopters.

"There is no answer to this question other than that the Americans are seeking to militate against us just for the fun of it," Lavrov said.

In September, the Afghan Air Force (AAF) received its first U.S.-made UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters as part of a planned replacement of its aging fleet of Russian-made helicopters.