FM Zarif: Iran ready to facilitate dialog between Afghan gov’t, Taliban, other groups

Tehran, Jan 31, IRNA – Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a meeting with the Taliban delegation in Tehran on Sunday that Iran is ready to facilitate dialog among Taliban, Afghan Government, and other Afghan groups and hoped that with the restoration of peace, the pretext for occupation will come to an end in Afghanistan. In the meeting with the Taliban delegation headed by Mulla Baradar that political decisions cannot happen in a vacuum and that formation of an all-inclusive government should happen in a participatory process and with taking into account the structures, institutions, and basic laws, such as the constitution. Hoping that the pains of the people of Afghanistan will come to an end and peace will be restored as soon as possible, Zarif said that the good people of Afghanistan have been oppressed and the occupation has severely harmed them. At the beginning of the meeting, the delegation of Taliban gave a report of the peace process and Afghan-Afghan talks and stressed that the relations between Iran and Afghanistan have always been based on friendship and good-neighborliness, hoping that restoration of peace will expand the ties more than before. Referring to the destructive role of Daesh (ISIS) in Afghanistan and the region, Mulla Baradar expressed happiness with the intra-Afghan talks, adding that the formation of an all-inclusive government with all the ethnicities and political groups in Afghanistan is a necessity for the establishment of peace in Afghanistan.