{"id":15668,"date":"2018-12-28T04:07:56","date_gmt":"2018-12-28T04:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=15668"},"modified":"2018-12-28T04:07:56","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T04:07:56","slug":"pentagon-admits-irans-key-role-in-restoring-calm-to-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/pentagon-admits-irans-key-role-in-restoring-calm-to-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon admits Iran\u2019s key role in restoring calm to Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Pentagon has acknowledged\u00a0Iran\u2019s key role in restoring peace and stability to war-torn Afghanistan, backtracking on Washington\u2019s earlier claims that Tehran supports the local Taliban militant group.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIran seeks a stable Afghan government that is responsive to Iranian goals, the elimination of ISIS-K, the removal of the US\/NATO presence, and the protection of Iranian concerns, such as water rights and border security,\u201d the US Department of Defense said in a report sent to Congress this week.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon also admitted Iran\u2019s influence in Afghanistan, saying that Tehran pursues \u201ca multitrack strategy\u201d of engaging with the Afghan government and seeks to boost bilateral economic ties with Kabul.<\/p>\n

\u201cIranian involvement is most prominent in western, central, and northern Afghanistan, where local Afghans share common history, culture, religion, and language with Iran,\u201d according to the report.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The report comes as Iran has announced it is engaged in negotiations with the Afghan Taliban to help settle the existing security challenges facing the neighboring country.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
PressTV-Confirmed: Iran talking to Taliban \u2018to aid Afghan security\u2019<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Iran\u2019s top security official confirms that the country has been holding talks with the Afghan Taliban in coordination with Kabul to help relieve insecurity in Afghanistan.<\/a><\/div>\n

Tehran\u2019s announcement came after US President Donald Trump had ordered a withdrawal of nearly half of the American forces stationed in Afghanistan, more than 17 years after Washington and its allies invaded Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

The invasion overthrew the Taliban regime. But US forces have remained bogged down there through the presidencies of George W. Bush, Barack Obama and now Trump.<\/p>\n

Taliban militants have warned that they will be stepping up their attacks until the US forces fully withdraw from Afghanistan after more than a decade and half of occupation.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Daesh terror group has also taken advantage of the chaos to establish a foothold in Afghanistan, further complicating the Afghan government\u2019s efforts to uproot terrorism.<\/p>\n

During a visit to Afghanistan on Wednesday, Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), said Tehran had been holding a series of talks with the Taliban group \u201cwith the knowledge of the Afghan government\u201d and would continue to do so in the future.<\/p>\n

Shamkhani made the comments during a meeting with Hamdullah Mohib, the Afghan president\u2019s national security adviser in the capital Kabul.<\/p>\n

Accompanied by a number of high-ranking security, military and political officials, Shamkhani paid a one-day visit to Afghanistan, where he met with senior Afghan officials, including President Ashraf Ghani, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah and former president Hamid Karzai.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

President Ghani meets Iran’s National Security Advisor Ali Shamkhani at Presidential Palace
\nBoth sides discussed bilateral ties, Afghan-led peace process and regional consensus for Afghan peace process and counter-terrorism, according Presidential Palace’s statement#Afghanistan<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/LhWhsQTeZD<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 ShamshadNews (@Shamshadnetwork) December 27, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

During his talks with Karzai, Shamkhani slammed Washington\u2019s double standards in its so-called fight on terror, describing the US presence in the region as a main cause of instability and insecurity.<\/p>\n

Karzai, for his part, praised Iran\u2019s support for Afghanistan, saying the Afghan people and government are confident that the Islamic Republic would play effective role in promoting peace in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

In an address to the Geneva Conference<\/a> on Afghanistan last month, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on the international community to facilitate \u201cinclusive\u201d dialog between the Afghan Taliban and the government in a bid to restore peace to the conflict-plagued country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pentagon has acknowledged\u00a0Iran\u2019s key role in restoring peace and stability to war-torn Afghanistan, backtracking on Washington\u2019s earlier claims that Tehran supports the local Taliban militant group. \u201cIran seeks a stable Afghan government that is responsive to Iranian goals, the elimination of ISIS-K, the removal of the US\/NATO presence, and the protection of Iranian concerns, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":15669,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news-and-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15670,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15668\/revisions\/15670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}