Afghanistan: faced with the return of the Taliban, Tehran chooses neutrality

Iranian patrol on the border with Afghanistan (photo illustration).

ATTA KENARE / AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

The Iranian authorities have opted for a position of neutrality since the arrival of the Taliban, insisting on the establishment of a power and a government comprising all the sensitivities of the Afghan society.

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With our correspondent in Tehran,

Siavosh Ghazi

Since the capture of Kabul by the Taliban, Iran has opted for a position of neutrality.

The Iranian population is predominantly Shiite, unlike the Taliban who are Sunni extremists.

Two days ago, on receiving the Pakistani foreign minister, the Iranian president welcomed the

departure of the Americans from Afghanistan

.

But he insisted that neighboring countries should be content to encourage the formation of an enlarged government in Kabul, understanding the different political and ethnic sensitivities of the country.

Open border

Tehran has also kept its border with Afghanistan open, in particular for the transit of goods and the export of energy products to Afghanistan. For several years, Iran has started a political dialogue with the Taliban despite the differences with this Sunni group which had not hesitated to attack the Afghan Shiites in the past and to kill Iranian diplomats during the capture of Mazar. Sharif in the 1990s.

While relations between the Taliban and Iran have improved in recent years, the presence of extremist groups linked to ISIS and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan worries Tehran, which strongly condemned Thursday's airport attack. from Kabul.

Moreover, Iran has proposed the organization in Tehran of a meeting of the neighboring countries of Afghanistan to coordinate positions against the Taliban.

Tehran also fears the massive arrival of new refugees, when there are already several million Afghans in the country.

To read also: Afghanistan: for Iran, American "military failure", a chance for a lasting peace

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  • Iran

  • Afghanistan

  • Taliban