Taliban Signal Readiness To Deepen Ties After Pezeshkian Comments
The Taliban on Saturday welcomed comments by Iran’s president about accelerating engagement with Afghanistan, saying they are working to build trust with Tehran.
The Taliban on Saturday welcomed comments by Iran’s president about accelerating engagement with Afghanistan, saying they are working to build trust with Tehran.
Hamdullah Fitrat, the Taliban’s deputy spokesperson, described President Masoud Pezeshkian’s remarks as positive and said the Taliban are seeking to foster confidence with Iran across all areas of cooperation.
Pezeshkian said Iran would make every effort to “strengthen and accelerate engagement with Afghanistan” in border regions. He made the remarks at the end of a visit to South Khorasan province, which borders Afghanistan.
The Iranian president said the governor of South Khorasan has been granted authority to speed up engagement with Afghanistan.
Iran is seeking to increase exports to Afghanistan as border crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan remain closed. Trade between Iran and Afghanistan is estimated at about $4 billion. Officials expect trade with Iran to grow further following the disruption of Afghanistan’s commercial ties with Pakistan. The Taliban are also seeking to use Iran’s ports of Chabahar and Bandar Abbas as alternatives to Pakistani ports.
The comments come a week after Iran hosted a meeting in Tehran attended by representatives of Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries and Russia. The Taliban declined to send a representative to the meeting. Following the talks, a senior aide to Iran’s president travelled to Kabul and invited Taliban’s foreign minister to visit Iran.
