TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif said here Monday Iran strongly supports the ongoing peace process in Afghanistan.
Iran believes there is no alternative to national dialogue to restore peace to Afghanistan, Zarif told chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council (HPC) Muhammad Karim Khalili.
Tehran also supports efforts by the Afghan High Peace Council to forge national unity and cohesion and accelerate the peace process in Afghanistan, he added.
Zarif cited terrorism, especially the presence of Daesh, as the most significant threat to Afghanistan, saying Iran is ready to help fight the menace and facilitate the peace process in its neighbor.
For his part, Khalili elaborated on efforts made by his council to strengthen national unity and foster trust among Afghans.
"We thank the Islamic Republic of Iran for its support to fast-track the peace process in Afghanistan and expect it not to halt this support,” he added.
Members of the High Peace Council (HPC), an Afghan body overseeing efforts to start peace talks, are expected to attend multilateral peace talks in Moscow Friday even though the Afghan government has rejected them.
Senior Taliban officials said on Monday the Afghan Taliban will join the talks hosted by Russia.
Russia invited 12 countries and the Taliban, who are fighting to restore their rule after their 2001 ouster, but the United States and the Afghan government declined.
Officials said representatives from Iran, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are expected to attend.
The Moscow talks underline the increasingly active role Russia is playing in Afghanistan, decades after Soviet forces withdrew from the country, with business investment plans, diplomatic and cultural outreach and small military support for the central government.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani rejected the invitation on the grounds that talks with the Taliban should be led by the Afghan government.
Russia decided to go ahead with the Moscow talks nevertheless, a diplomatic move that has angered Kabul.
A five-member Taliban delegation led by Sher Muhammad Abbas Stanakzai, head of the Taliban’s political council in Qatar, will reportedly attend.
Some Taliban said the delegation would raise their demands for a withdrawal of all foreign forces, the release of all prisoners and the lifting of a ban on travel.