Afghan Taliban Says It Has No War with the Islamic Republic of Iran

In response to recent news reports of tensions on the borders of Iran and Afghanistan, Taliban officials announced that they would refrain from any war or conflict with Tehran, but they also would not accept military deployment on the shared border .

In this regard, Shabir Ahmad, head of the Ministry of Defense working group and acting head of the Taliban leadership in organizing border affairs with Iran, met and discussed with Sayed Hassan Mortazavi, deputy head of the Islamic Republic's embassy in Kabul, on Tuesday.

The Taliban representative said in the meeting: "Our policy towards neighboring countries, especially the Islamic Republic of Iran, which hosts millions of Afghan citizens, is to avoid any war or conflict and to move towards comprehensive cooperation . "

Referring to some problems on the common borders of the two countries, he further stated that "we call on the Islamic Republic of Iran to cooperate with the new Afghan government in various fields of border security, including preventing human and drug trafficking, as well as combating terrorism . "

Three days ago, tensions between the two countries erupted after a clash between Iranian and Afghan border guards. While Iranian border guards blamed the arrival of road construction machinery from Afghanistan for the conflict, Afghan border officials said they had “seized an Iranian military vehicle after it illegally entered Afghan territory.”

According to Iranian domestic news agencies, after these tensions, Special Representative Ebrahim Raisi contacted the Afghan Interior and Defense Ministries and called for an end to the tensions and emphasized resolving the issue within the framework of the High Border Commission of the two countries .

This is while a Taliban diplomat recently arrived in Tehran to work at the Afghan embassy and is scheduled to work at the level of "Third Secretary" in Tehran.

After Pakistan, Qatar, Turkmenistan, and Russia, the Islamic Republic is the fifth country to accept Taliban diplomats to work in Afghan embassies and consular missions.

Source: Voice of America