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VOA – ISLAMABAD – Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has hosted leaders of Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban insurgency and discussed efforts aimed at finding a negotiated settlement to the Afghan war. A Taliban spokesman said Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the political deputy chief and head of the insurgent group\u2019s Qatar-based office, led the visiting delegation at the meeting. This is the second time Taliban officials have traveled to Tehran since their yearlong peace negotiations with the United States collapsed in early September.<\/p>\n
The latest visit also comes a week after the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) alleged that Iran continues to provide the insurgent group with military support in a bid to counter Washington\u2019s influence in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Iranian official media reported Wednesday that in his discussions with Taliban visitors, Zarif underscored the need to launch an intra-Afghan peace dialogue for \u201cthe formation of an all-inclusive government\u201d in the war-shattered neighboring country.<\/p>\n
The top Iranian diplomat is said to have voiced Tehran\u2019s readiness to take part in efforts aimed at facilitating such a peace process that would be participated by the Taliban and government officials as well as representatives from other influential political forces in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Press TV reported that Zarif conveyed to the Taliban his country\u2019s support for \u201cany effort by various Afghan forces to find common ground for cooperation towards paving the way for the departure of all foreign forces from Afghanistan\u201d as an outcome of intra-Afghan reconciliation talks.<\/p>\n
‘Iranian military support’<\/strong><\/p>\n The Pentagon released the DIA report on Iran\u2019s military power earlier this month, alleging the Shi\u2019ite nation has provided weapons, training, and funding to the Taliban in a bid to counter U.S. and Western influence in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n It went on to stress Tehran\u2019s \u201ccalibrated support\u201d is also meant to combat Islamic State\u2019s affiliates in the country and increase Tehran\u2019s influence in any future government in Kabul that emerges as a result of a political reconciliation among Afghan warring sides.<\/p>\n The Afghan Taliban are \u201cless receptive\u201d to Iranian guidance but still it helps further Iranian regional objectives because they combat common enemies, the report noted.<\/p>\n \u201cTehran does not seek to return the Taliban to power but aims to maintain influence with the group as a hedge in the event that the Taliban gains a role in a future Afghan government,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n Iran engages both the insurgents and the Afghan government as part of its \u201cdual-track strategy\u201d to achieve its \u201cbroader security goals\u201d in the country, the DIA report said.<\/p>\n The Taliban denies allegations it receives military support from Iran or Pakistan, which also shares a long border with Afghanistan. The insurgent group maintains the \u201cpropaganda\u201d is an attempt to defame the Taliban and its \u201cjihad\u201d against U.S.-led \u201cforeign occupation” forces in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" VOA – ISLAMABAD – Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has hosted leaders of Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban insurgency and discussed efforts aimed at finding a negotiated settlement to the Afghan war. A Taliban spokesman said Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the political deputy chief and head of the insurgent group\u2019s Qatar-based office, led the visiting delegation at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}