Iran ready to facilitate intra-Afghan peace talks

KABUL (Pajhwok): Iran says it stand ready to facilitate negotiations among Afghan factions on promoting the peace process in their country.

Foreign Minister Javad Zarif expressed Iran’s readiness during a meeting with United Nations Special Envoy for Afghanistan Jean Arnault.

The French diplomat visited Tehran at the head of a delegation on Sunday to exchange views with Iranian foreign ministry officials on the situation in Afghanistan.

Iran Front Page quoted Zarif as speaking on the fast deteriorating security environment in Afghanistan and the increasing complexity of the situation there.

Blaming the current situation in Afghanistan on foreign powers’ flawed policies, he said Iran was willing to help make the Afghan peace talks a success.

For his part, the UN envoy underlined the role of Iran and other regional countries in helping advance the peace trend in the war-devastated country.

No country or a limited number of countries alone could rectify the current situation in Afghanistan. Only collective cooperation could defuse the tensions in the country, the diplomat explained.

Intra-Afghan talks were the only way to steer Afghanistan out of insecurity, said the envoy, who hailed his talks in Tehran as fruitful and productive.

PAN Monitoring/mud