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Afghanistan's Abdullah Discusses Iran, Pakistan, Peace Process

Ayesha Tanzeem

   ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN - The man heading Afghanistan's peace efforts said
   Iran did not attend the ceremony marking the opening of talks with the
   Taliban due to tensions with the United States.

   "Iran was invited...Sometimes their relations with the United States
   which [are] under a lot of tension at the moment, those things affect
   their decisions [of] participating in a conference or not," Abdullah
   Abdullah, the chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation
   told VOA in Islamabad toward the end of a three-day visit to Pakistan.

   Despite that, Abdullah said, Iran supported the peace process. He also
   acknowledged that Iran had "legitimate concerns" and "legitimate
   interests" in Afghanistan as a neighbor that hosts millions of Afghan
   refugees.

   He said Iran's contacts with various Taliban groups could be used as an
   opportunity to advance peace efforts.

   The U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay
   Khalilzad, told a Washington-based research group, the United States
   Institute of Peace, last week that the U.S.-Iran relations were getting
   in the way of Iran cooperating with Afghanistan's peace process.

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