Iran urges support for political solution in Afghanistan

Tehran, Aug. 8 (UNI/XINHUA) Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met here on Sunday the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General’s personal envoy on Afghanistan and regional issues, Jean Arnault, and called for a “clear stand” of the international community in support of a political solution to the crisis in Afghanistan.
“The international community must take a clear stand in support of a political solution to the crisis in Afghanistan and in condemnation of the violence and its implications,” Zarif told the visiting envoy and his delegation, according to a note published by Iran’s Foreign Ministry on its official website.
Iran’s chief diplomat blamed the wrong policies of “foreign powers” in Afghanistan for the deteriorating security situation in the country.
Zarif said Afghanistan’s problems can only be solved through dialogue between Afghan parties, and voiced Iran’s readiness to facilitate such talks to enable the Afghan peace process to advance.
For his part, the UN envoy stressed the importance of Iran and the rest of the countries in the region to help the Afghan peace process, and said no country or limited group of countries alone is able to resolve the current situation in Afghanistan.
Only collective cooperation can reduce the gravity of the situation in Afghanistan, Arnault added.
The UN diplomat pointed to inter-Afghan dialogue as the only way to overcome the current situation in Afghanistan, and described a two-day inter-Afghan meeting held in Tehran in July as “useful” and “important.”
Tehran hosted a meeting between high-ranking delegates of the Afghan government and the Taliban group on July 7 and 8.
At the end of the inter-Afghan summit, the parties issued a joint statement declaring that the continuation of the war would damage the country’s interests, and that they should work to reach a political and peaceful solution to solve the existing differences.
In his visit in Tehran on Sunday, Arnault also met Mohammad Ebrahim Taherian, Iran’s special envoy for Afghanistan, and the two exchanged views about the ongoing issues in Afghanistan, Press TV reported.
Also on Sunday, Taherian held separate phone calls with Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar, and with head of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah.
As reported by Press TV, Taherian and Abdullah discussed the latest developments in Afghanistan, the peace process, and the intra-Afghan talks, and Abdullah called on Tehran to maintain its support.
The Iranian envoy and Atmar discussed the latest developments in Afghanistan, the importance of the current peace process, and the continuation of inter-Afghan talks in Tehran, the website of Iran’s Foreign Ministry wrote.
New Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi met Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani on Thursday in Tehran, and told his counterpart that Iran “is ready to use its potentials to establish lasting peace and prevent bloodshed in Afghanistan,” the Iranian Presidency’s official website wrote.
“Foreigners” are the root cause of insecurity in Afghanistan, Raisi told Ghani, and with the reduction of the presence of American forces in Afghanistan, provocations will continue in different ways, since insecurity benefits foreign interests.
On Friday, Deborah Lyons, the UN secretary-general’s special representative for Afghanistan, warned the Security Council in a briefing on a dangerous turning point in Afghanistan, as the war has entered a new phase.
In the past weeks, the war in Afghanistan has entered a new, deadlier, and more destructive phase. The Taliban campaign during June and July to capture rural areas has achieved significant territorial gains, and the group has begun to attack large cities from this strengthened position, Lyons said.