Rense.com



Iran Warns Against Foreign
Troops In Afghanistan
11-25-1

TEHRAN (PNS) - Iran has warned against the deployment of more foreign troops to Afghanistan, saying they would only complicate the crisis in the country.
 
In a meeting with his British counterpart Jack Straw in Tehran, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said, "handling Afghan issues should be left to the Afghan people".
 
Straw has now left Iran and arrived in Pakistan. He is visiting Afghanistan's neighbours in an effort to ensure they support the plan to set up a UN sponsored national unity government, reports BBC.
 
Straw described his meeting with Kharrazi in Tehran as "constructive" and welcomed what he called Iran's complete commitment to a broad-based government in Afghanistan.
 
Straw said that Britain had no interest in keeping troops in Afghanistan longer than necessary. Britain has currently some 100 special forces at Bagram air base near Kabul.
 
Straw wants to impress on both Iran and Pakistan the need to work together, if next week's Afghanistan conference in Germany is to have any chance of laying the groundwork for a long-term settlement.
 
During his visit to Tehran, Straw also held talks with the Northern Alliance's Foreign Minister Dr Abdullah Abdullah, who arrived in the Iranian capital en route to Europe for the talks.
 
Dr Abdullah said he and Straw discussed their commitment to a broad-based government in Afghanistan, but he refused to endorse the deployment of further foreign troops.
 
He also repeated that moderate Taliban could not take part in the Bonn meeting: it was a contradiction in terms, he said. However, the Iranian foreign minister suggested that there might be a role for Afghans who had been working with the Taliban authorities but were not - as he put it - affiliated to the mentality of the Taliban.
 
http://www.paknews.com/main.php?id=3&date1=2001-11-24



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