U.S. AND IRAN FIND COMMON CAUSE AT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AFGHANISTAN
PanARMENIAN.Net
01.04.2009 10:55 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The U.S. and Iran found common cause Tuesday in
battling Afghanistan’s drugs trade and rebuilding the war-torn nation
but Tehran warned its old foe that a planned troop surge would not
bring security.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said top American and
Iranian officials had met briefly at the international conference on
stabilizing Afghanistan in The Hague.
"In the course of the conference today, our special representative
for Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, had a brief and cordial exchange
with the head of the Iranian delegation," she told a press conference.
But in a sign that Tehran and Washington are still far from reconciling
on Afghanistan, Iran’s representative Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh
warned that President Barack Obama’s promised surge of U.S. troops
was a mistake.
"The presence of foreign forces has not improved things in the country
and it seems that an increase in the number of foreign forces will
prove ineffective too," the Iranian deputy foreign minister told
the conference
Obama said last Friday that the United States would send 4,000 more
troops to train Afghan security forces in addition to an extra 17,000
already committed.
At the conference, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton both said dialogue with moderate members of
the Taliban could help stem the insurgency.
And in a rare meeting of minds, Clinton and Iran’s representative
stressed their support for projects to rebuild Afghanistan and end
its role as the epicenter of the global heroin trade that finances
Al-Qaeda activities.
"Trafficking in narcotics, the spread of violent extremism, economic
stagnation (in Afghanistan) are regional challenges that will require
regional solutions," said Clinton as she sat across the table from
Iran’s envoy.
She was addressing Karzai, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and
representatives of 90 countries and organizations meeting in The Hague.
"Iran is fully prepared to participate in the projects aimed at
combating drug trafficking and the plans in line with developing and
reconstructing Afghanistan," Akhoundzadeh told delegates, AFP reports.