Foreign Troops in Afghanistan Complicate Crisis: Iranian FM

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, November 25, 2001

Foreign Troops in Afghanistan Complicate Crisis: Iranian FM

Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said here on Saturday that the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan will only further complicate the ongoing crisis, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.

Kharazi made the remarks while meeting visiting French Cooperation Minister Charles Josselin, noting that constant foreign military presence in Afghanistan has led to adverse results.

He warned that "continuation of such policies only contributes to animosity among the people."

Meanwhile, Kharazi stressed the need for all nations to assist in efforts to help the war-weary Afghan people and assured the French official of Iran's readiness to send relief aid to the conflict-shattered country.

Echoing Kharazi's remarks, Josselin voiced France's readiness to participate in efforts to rebuild Afghanistan and called for a broad-based government that takes the ethnic make-up of the country into account.

While terming Iran's role in the area as "pivotal", the French minister stressed that the consultations between Tehran and Paris is necessary.

He lauded Iran's assistance in providing relief aid to the Afghan people and called for continuation of such assistance and efforts to reconstruct the peace-hunger nation.

Josselin, who arrived here Friday night from Uzbekistan, has already conferred with Iran's Majlis (parliament) speaker Mehdi Karrubi on the latest developments of the situation in Afghanistan and bilateral ties.

French Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday that the deployment of international security and humanitarian missions in Afghanistan is in a complex situation as necessary discussions remain blocked among the Uzbek, Afghan and American sides.

A French advance contingent of 58 troops has been waiting in Uzbekistan for being transported to their destination of northern Afghan city Mazar-e-Sharif.

Some leaders of the Northern Alliance, now in control of the majority of Afghanistan territory, have openly rejected deployment of foreign troops in the central Asian country.

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