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UN Envoy in Iran to Discuss Afghan Crisis
UN special representative to Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi arrived here Saturday and went directly into talks with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on the ongoing Afghan crisis.
The two sides had "a long and cordial meeting" and discussed the meeting of foreign ministers from "six-plus-two" group, scheduled in New York on November 12, according to a press release from the U.N. Information Center (UNIC).
The "six-plus-two" group comprises six Afghanistan's neighbors, namely China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and the two powers of the United States and Russia.
The UNIC noted that Brahimi and Zarif also agreed that the U.N. General Assembly from November 10 to 16 would be a good time for the United Nations and Afghanistan's neighbors to discuss the future of the war-torn nation.
Further meetings between the U.N. envoy and Iranian officials will be held at Iran's foreign ministry over the next couple of days.
Brahimi, who arrived here from Pakistan for a three-day visit, will also meet with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. It is his first visit since the U.S.-led air strikes on Afghanistan began on October 7.
The U.S. has been pounding Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia for harboring Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect of the September 11 terror attacks on Washington and New York.
While condemning the terror attacks on the U.S., Iran has also denounced the U.S.-led military strikes against neighboring Afghanistan.
As a close neighbor of Afghanistan and an ally of the Afghan anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, the Islamic republic has been keeping contacts with the international community, especially the Islamic world, to coordinate stance on anti-terrorism and the ongoing Afghan crisis.
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