- TEHRAN (PNS) - Iran has warned
against the deployment of more foreign troops to Afghanistan, saying they
would only complicate the crisis in the country.
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- In a meeting with his British counterpart Jack Straw
in Tehran, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said, "handling Afghan
issues should be left to the Afghan people".
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- Straw has now left Iran and arrived in Pakistan. He is
visiting Afghanistan's neighbours in an effort to ensure they support the
plan to set up a UN sponsored national unity government, reports BBC.
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- Straw described his meeting with Kharrazi in Tehran as
"constructive" and welcomed what he called Iran's complete commitment
to a broad-based government in Afghanistan.
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- Straw said that Britain had no interest in keeping troops
in Afghanistan longer than necessary. Britain has currently some 100 special
forces at Bagram air base near Kabul.
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- Straw wants to impress on both Iran and Pakistan the
need to work together, if next week's Afghanistan conference in Germany
is to have any chance of laying the groundwork for a long-term settlement.
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- During his visit to Tehran, Straw also held talks with
the Northern Alliance's Foreign Minister Dr Abdullah Abdullah, who arrived
in the Iranian capital en route to Europe for the talks.
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- Dr Abdullah said he and Straw discussed their commitment
to a broad-based government in Afghanistan, but he refused to endorse the
deployment of further foreign troops.
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- He also repeated that moderate Taliban could not take
part in the Bonn meeting: it was a contradiction in terms, he said. However,
the Iranian foreign minister suggested that there might be a role for Afghans
who had been working with the Taliban authorities but were not - as he
put it - affiliated to the mentality of the Taliban.
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- http://www.paknews.com/main.php?id=3&date1=2001-11-24
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