Iranian FM Zarif Calls for Taliban’s Limited Role in Afghanistan
The Iranian Foreign Minister (FM) Mohammad Jawad Zarif said on Wednesday that Taliban should have a role in Afghanistan, but not a dominant role, according to reports.
The Iranian Foreign Minister (FM) Mohammad Jawad Zarif said on Wednesday that Taliban should have a role in Afghanistan, but not a dominant role, according to reports.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on a visit to India that Iran has had intelligence contacts with the Taliban because it needed to secure border areas controlled by the Taliban on the Afghan side.
“I think it would be impossible to have a future Afghanistan without any role for the Taliban,” Mr Zarif said. according to Reuters.
“But we also believe that the Taliban should not have a dominant role in Afghanistan,” he added.
Zarif said it was up to Afghans to decide what role the Taliban should have but Afghanistan’s neighbors would not want them to be in overall control.
“Nobody in the region believes that a Taliban dominated Afghanistan is in the security interests of the region. I believe that is almost a consensus.”
This comes as US Special Representative for Afghan peace ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has launched his fourth round of trips to the region after Taliban called off talks due on Wednesday in Qatar over agenda disagreement.
Mr Khalilzad will lead an interagency delegation to India, China, Afghanistan, and Pakistan from January 8 – 21, according to a statement released by the US state department.
