Taliban Foreign Minister pays first visit to Tehran

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian (4th l) and his Afghan counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi (3rd d) during their delegation meeting in Tehran, January 9, 2022. AP

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Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi heads a large delegation to Tehran to discuss economic and trade cooperation with Iran in particular.

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With our correspondent in Tehran, 

Siavosh Ghazi

This is the first visit by the Taliban foreign minister to Iran since the fall of Kabul.

In Tehran, Amir Khan Muttaqi affirmed that “ 

positive discussions

 ” had taken place on trade between the two countries, oil, the transit of goods or even on political and security issues. 

For his part, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian supported the Taliban's demand by asking the United States to release the billions of dollars and return them to Afghanistan for humanitarian reasons and to help improve the economic situation in this country.

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

Massive arrival of Afghan refugees

Like Pakistan, Iran faces the massive influx of Afghan refugees.

A few days ago, the head of Iranian diplomacy said that some 5,000 Afghans are arriving in Iran daily.

He even put forward the figure of 800,000 refugees who had arrived in Iran four months ago.

Before the

fall of Kabul

, Iran already had more than 2.5 million Afghan refugees on its soil.

Tehran is trying to create camps on the border with Afghanistan to accommodate the refugees.

But most of them enter Iran illegally with the objective of going to Turkey and then to Europe.

Also to listen: More and more Afghans are fleeing their country for Europe via Iran

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  • Afghanistan

  • Taliban

  • Iran

  • Diplomacy