The Taliban in Tehran? Why not, as long as the Taliban opposes the US and its military presence in Afghanistan and prevents the emergence of Daech in Afghanistan.
Not long ago, Iran inaugurated the first large scale rail link linking the Iranian city of Khawf to Herat in Afghanistan. This railway with a transfer capacity of 3 million tons of goods and 1 million passengers per year is the first in Afghan history, a railway that opens wide the doors of Central Asia to Iran. Why should we hesitate to help Afghanistan recover from decades of deprivation, when by its history, language and culture, Afghanistan is part of the Iranian civilizational space?
“Iran supports an inclusive government in Afghanistan that brings together representatives of all ethnicities, religions and parties,” the Iranian Foreign Minister said during a meeting with the Taliban delegation in Tehran on Sunday, January 31. The head of Iranian Diplomacy, Mohammad Javad Zarif, received Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, number two of the Taliban, and the accompanying political delegation. Both sides discussed regional issues and especially the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. In defiance of the terms of the Doha agreements, which involved dozens of US/Taliban meetings, the Americans recently began targeting Taliban positions across Afghanistan, which the militia warned against. Referring to the impact of the American presence in Afghanistan, Zarif stressed that the United States “cannot be a good mediator on principle” because it is the occupying power. “You are part of the Afghan population that should not be targeted during operations and in terms of operations, the Taliban should not target Afghans either,” Zarif told his hosts.
Does Iran aim to play a mediating role between Kabul and the Taliban with the strict objective of leading to an expulsion of the American occupation troops? Last week, the Afghan Foreign Ministry announced in a statement that the movement of the Taliban delegation to Iran was coordinated with Kabul. “During this visit, Iran will discuss a regional consensus for the establishment of an immediate cease-fire, the conclusion of an inclusive peace agreement within the framework of the Republic and respect for the principles of the Afghan Constitution,” said the communiqué, signed by Abdullah Abdullah. “What Afghans want is a comprehensive ceasefire. And Iran is ready to contribute to the restoration of peace and stability between the state and the Taliban so as to deprive the Americans of any pretext to maintain their military presence in the country.
“But there is more: the Afghan people have proven more than once in their long history that they do not tolerate any foreign military occupation, said political analyst Hanizadeh, who commented on the visit of the Taliban’s political delegation to Iran: “Unlike Al Qaeda, the Taliban negotiate, which demonstrates their ability to integrate a political system based on power sharing. “Afghanity” is important to the Taliban and the foreign military presence is completely unbearable for them.
All this is also important to Iran, but also to Russia and China, which share thousands of kilometers with this country that is the gateway to Central Asia. In this sense, the Taliban are perfectly capable of blocking Daech whose elements are since 2019 regularly heliborne and transferred to Afghanistan to be deployed on Iran’s eastern borders. Afghanistan shares long borders with Iran, the same language and culture and a Daech implantation at its gates is intolerable. In Nagorno-Karabakh, the American plan to destabilize Iran through interposed takfirist terrorists fell through thanks to Russia/Iran cooperation. The same thing could happen in Afghanistan. The failure of the US/Taliban talks, which risks being amplified under Biden, one of the architects of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, favors the ground for Taliban cooperation on the one hand, and Iran, Russia and China on the other”.
The analyst adds: “It is moreover a notable military power that the Taliban. Biden announced that he wants to review the plan to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, a plan promised by his predecessor. This is likely to make Afghanistan a theater of anti-U.S., anti-NATO confrontation. On January 27, 2020, a US Air Force Global Express E-11A bomber assigned to the Deh Yak district in Ghazni province in Afghanistan crashed.
by Jeremy Abbott – American Correspondent – WPN