The Taliban had traveled to Tehran with a large delegation and high hopes.

After two days of negotiations, however, they left without having achieved anything.

The 26-person delegation led by the Taliban's foreign minister, Amir Khan Mottaqi, did not achieve its most important goal, the recognition of its “Islamic Emirate” by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

However, Mottaqi described the talks on economic and trade issues as "positive".

Details were not disclosed.

Rainer Hermann

Editor in politics.

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Mottaqi was received by the Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. According to the Iranian media, he reminded him of the massacre that the Taliban had wrought among the Shiite residents of the city in 1998 after the capture of Mazar-e Sharif. Eight Iranian diplomats were also killed when the Iranian consulate was stormed. Amir-Abdollahian called on the Taliban to ensure the security of the diplomatic missions in the future.

The spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Saeed Chatibzadeh, rated the talks as "positive". However, Iran is currently still not ready to recognize the Taliban. Afghanistan continues to be a cause for concern for Iran. Since the Taliban came back to power in August, a further 300,000 Afghans have fled to Iran, even though Iran had tightened border controls.

The Taliban had apparently expected that they could move into the Afghan embassy building in Tehran immediately. The Iranians, however, clearly rejected this. The Taliban had previously visited Qatar and Pakistan. Iran and the Taliban had had informal contacts over the past few months. The Iranian envoy to Afghanistan, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, has been to Afghanistan several times. Iran's position has not changed since the Taliban came to power. The government does not want to recognize Iran until all of the major ethnic groups are represented in it and they are given a chance to participate.

Before the Taliban's visit, the previous Iranian ambassador in Kabul had pointed out in an interview with the independent Afghan television broadcaster Tolo News that Tehran could not recognize the current membership of the Taliban government. Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi had said that Iran was making efforts to have a government in Kabul in which all ethnic groups would be represented.

Tehran therefore organized meetings of the Taliban with two leading representatives of the Persian-speaking ethnic group in Afghanistan.

Mottaqi confirmed the meetings with Ismail Khan from Herat and Ahmad Massoud, the leader of the National Resistance Front from the Punjir Valley.

It was the first meeting of the two with representatives of the Taliban since the Taliban came to power.

He asked the two of them to give up their resistance to Taliban rule and return to Afghanistan, Mottaqi said.

You could live freely and safely in Afghanistan.