A top Russian diplomat in Afghanistan has warned against a repeat of the Afghan civil war after the US and NATO withdraw their troops from the war-torn country next year.<br />In an interview with Al Jazeera's Barbara Serra on Wednesday, Andrey Avetisyan, the Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan, drew parallel between the current US occupation and the Russian invasion in the 1980s. <br /><br />Avestisyan said that "there is only one way to peace in Afghanistan," and that is a negotiated peace agreement. <br /><br />"The Afghans have to mend fences among them," he said. "The political solution, the peace process and reconciliation should be the way as it should have been then".<br /><br />Avestisyan spoke on the 25th year anniversary of the Soviet withdrawal in Afghanistan, which was followed by a fierce civil war and the eventual rule of the Taliban. <br /><br />Avestisyan, who was a junior diplomat in Afghanistan in the 1980s, has since returned to Kabul as Russia's to representative there. <br /><br />Despite its decade-long presence in Afg
