Taliban Foreign Minister Arrives in Iran for Talks in First Official Visit
By Staff, Agencies
The Taliban foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, has arrived in Tehran at the head of a high-ranking delegation to hold talks with Iranian officials in the first such trip to the neighboring country since the group seized power.
"The visit aims at discussions on political, economic, transit and refugee issues between Afghanistan and Iran," the Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said in a Saturday tweet.
He added that a preliminary meeting for the visiting delegation was held in the Afghan Foreign Ministry, "where significant issues were assessed and included in the agenda."
Iran has repeatedly announced that the establishment of peace and stability in Afghanistan is only possible through the formation of a broad-based government in the war-ravaged country.
“We believe that sustainable security, and political and social stability in Afghanistan are possible only through real collective participation and an inclusive and effective government in which all ethnicities and religions play a role,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said while addressing the 17th Extraordinary Session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation [OIC] Council of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad, Pakistan, last month.
Iran has been hosting millions of Afghan migrants and refugees in recent decades but got sanctions instead of receiving financial support.
In an address to a UN Security Council meeting in November, Iran's permanent ambassador to the United Nations Majid Takht-Ravanchi warned that Afghanistan's neighbors should be helped out as they scramble to handle the out-flux of refugees that has been created by decades of American adventurism in the Central Asian country.
"Let’s be straightforward. This is not a local challenge and Afghanistan’s neighboring must not be left alone and expected to address this extremely difficult challenge single-handedly," Takht-Ravanchi said.
