In a ground-breaking counternarcotics operation, Iranian, Afghan, and Pakistani forces have cooperated in arrests and the seizure of illicit drugs. The UN's chief antidrug official, Antonio Mario Costa, described the operation as "a very important political message" to drug traffickers across the region.
Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad walks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai
at an Economic Cooperation Organization summit this month in Tehran.
As so often, many problems of the region need to
be solved at the regional level -- through cooperation, and not confrontation.
Iran seriously suffers from the narcotics being shipped via its territory to the
West. Don't say it has nothing to do with U.S.-Iranian relations.
Most of those drugs are produced in Afghanistan's Pashtun regions, where the
Taliban presence is strong, with proceeds feeding the Taliban and insurgency.
Both Tehran and Washington have direct interests in a stable Afghan government,
and thus in fighting the Taliban.
Iran open to multilateral talks on Afghanistan OTTAWA (AFP) - Visiting Iranian Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie said Thursday his government welcomes multilateral talks with the United States and its allies on Afghanistan. But, he added, Tehran has yet to receive an official invitation from the US administration or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "We have received some news about Mrs. Clinton's overtures, but we have not received an official invitation to any summit," he said through an interpreter during an unofficial visit to Canada. |
Late March will see an international "big-tent
meeting with all the parties who have a stake and an interest in Afghanistan,"
as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described it. The date and venue of
the conference have yet to be determined, but Clinton recently acknowledged that
Iran will be invited to the meeting. Iranian leaders have not committed
themselves yet, but there are good indications that they will participate.
The meeting will provide a venue for each side to evaluate the other's
candidness in negotiations based on mutual respect, and their approach to
resolving problems that go well beyond Afghanistan: Not just Iraq, the Middle
East, and the nuclear issue, but also sanctions against Iran and Tehran's
security concerns.
The Afghanistan meeting could mark the beginning of a new era in U.S.-Iranian
relations; previous attempts under the Bush administration did not go anywhere.
A "tentative Iranian offer to make a deal on all that divided us was rejected in
the we-don't-talk-to-evil days," as H. D. S. Greenway writes in the "International
Herald Tribune." And the two sides used the few public meetings on
Iraq of the last few years to embarrass one another publicly.
Both Washington and Tehran need to acknowledge past mistakes, pledge sincerely
not to repeat them, and start anew. If they are successful in that effort --
which requires time and patience -- the outcome will benefit both sides: for the
United States, which is still fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; and for
Iran, which while internally stable, in contrast to its two neighbors, is
suffering from sanctions and isolation.
Abbas Djavadi is associate director of broadcasting with RFE/RL. The views
expressed in this commentary are his own, and do not necessarily reflect those
of RFE/RL
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