Iran Has No Objection to Interim Afghan Government Chief: Official

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, December 05, 2001

Iran Has No Objection to Interim Afghan Government Chief: Official

Iran has no objection to the appointment of Pashtun chief Hamid Karzai as the head of the post-Taliban interim government in Afghanistan, the official IRNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

Iran has no objection to the appointment of Pashtun chief Hamid Karzai as the head of the post-Taliban interim government in Afghanistan, the official IRNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

The statement was made Tuesday in Berlin, Germany, by Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was dispatched asIran's special envoy to the Bonn conference on Afghanistan.

At the Bonn conference on Tuesday, Afghan factions reached a landmark deal over the appointment of Karzai as the head of the provincial government in the war-stricken country.

Karzai led south-based Pashtuns in the heady days of the Afghans' fight against the former soviet occupation and once servedas the deputy foreign minister in the Islamic Afghan government between 1992 and 1994.

"We will have no objection to Karzai if he is appointed as the premier of the interim Afghan government by the four delegation heads (at the Bonn conference)," Zarif told IRNA.

However, Zarif rejected reports that Iran was intending to play the first host to Karzai in a good-will gesture, saying that "Iran has not made such a proposal so far, but if Karzai is appointed as the head of the interim government, Tehran will welcome him, given the fact that he has already lived in Iran for a while."

Iran, which has more than 900 kilometers of borders with Afghanistan, has also been hosting more than 2 million of Afghan refugees for the past two decades due to the prolonged civil war inthe neighboring country.

Zarif said that "Iran, which has suffered immensely for years from instability and war in Afghanistan, believes that this (the Bonn conference) is an exceptional opportunity for the Afghan people and groups to reach a lasting solution for the reconstruction of Afghanistan."

Iran follows a policy of non-interference in Afghanistan, Zarif stressed, adding that "from Iran's vantage point, stability, peace and reconstruction of Afghanistan will serve the Islamic republic'sstrategic interests best."

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