Iranian FM to attend Bonn conference on Afghanistan

TEHRAN, Dec. 4 (MNA) – Iranian Ambassador to Germany Alireza Sheikh-Attar announced on Saturday that an Iranian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi is scheduled to attend the second Bonn conference on Afghanistan which will be held on December 5. Attending the NATO Summit in Lisbon in November 2010, Afghan President Hamid Karzai had asked German Chancellor Angela Merkel to host a follow-up conference ten years after the 2001 Bonn Conference, and the international community will meet in Bonn again on December 5. The conference will center on the transfer of security operations to the Afghan government by 2014. More than 1,000 delegates from 90 countries are expected to attend the conference. "The Iranian foreign minister, heading a 10-member delegation, will arrive in the city of Bonn on Sunday to attend the second Bonn conference on Afghanistan," Sheikh-Attar said. As a neighbor to Afghanistan, Iran’s participation in the conference is highly valued by the international community.