The United States should engage Iran as an "important regional player" on Afghan security and reconstruction issues, Afghanistan's foreign minister said on Friday. "I hope that with the new administration here in Washington come some changes in the bilateral relations between Tehran and Washington," Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said.
"Iran is an important regional player and to engage the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan in the anti-terror war and anti-drug campaign ... this is in the vital interest of Afghanistan and stability in our region," he told reporters.
Spanta was in Washington for talks on the Obama administration's review of policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the three alies endorsed a regional approach to staunch the resurgence of the Taliban, seven years after they were ousted from power in a US-led invasion. Iran had contributed $300 million to Afghanistan's reconstruction and was active in development projects, said Spanta.
Afghanistan took seriously "some rumour about some disruptive activities from the Iranian side in some part of Afghanistan" but remained committed to engaging with a neighbour with close historical and cultural ties, he said. The minister did not elaborate on the alleged Iranian activities, but security experts say Tehran provides a trickle of supplies to Taliban militants and backs some Afghan dissidents in order to put pressure on the US military.
Italy said on Monday that it was considering inviting Iran to a conference in June on securing the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan to fight terrorism, drugs and organised crime. The United States is expected to attend that event.
Iran is embroiled in a row with the West over its disputed nuclear program, but the new US administration of President Barrack Obama has expressed possible readiness to talk to its leaders.
While Iran and the United States sat at the same table to discuss Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks on the United States, the Bush administration made sure the new pro-Western Afghan government kept Tehran at arm's length. The United States and Iran, which have not had diplomatic ties for three decades, held three rounds of talks in Baghdad in 2007 on ways of reducing violence in Iraq.
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