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Iran Says Ready to Cooperate with UN on Afghan Issue
Iran on Sunday expressed its readiness to cooperate with the United Nations to make efforts to end the prolonged Afghan war, the official IRNA news agency reported.
In his meeting with visiting UN special envoy for Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi voiced Iran's support for UN activities to end the war in neighboring Afghanistan.
Last week, the ruling Taliban militia of Afghanistan refused to participate in a UN-sponsored meeting on the country's civil war held in Germany.
"The Taliban does not believe in useless talks and meeting being initiated or sponsored directly or indirectly by the United Nations because the world body is no more a mediator," a Taliban official said after a meeting with Vendrell in Kabul.
Kharazi said that negotiations are the only way to end the war and all countries and international organizations should pay more attention to "this forgotten country," calling for regional and world cooperation to terminate the Afghanistan crisis through peaceful means.
Vendrell agreed with Kharazi's opinion on Afghan issue, saying that ending the bloodshed is only possible through negotiations between the parties to the conflict.
Iran is a frequent critic of the Sunni fundamentalist Taliban militia, which Iran does not recognize but opened a consulate in Herat a year ago.
After attacked by protesters there following a bomb blast in a mosque that killed an exiled Iranian scholar and nine others, Iran recalled its diplomats from Herat and closed its consulate last month.
The Taliaban now controls over 90 percent of Afghanistan and is fighting with the opposition Northern Alliance in a protracted civil war.
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