By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer
     
Without the least doubt Afghanistan needs peace and stability while the Afghan people who have been plagued by incessant wars over the past 42 years since the communist coup toppled the last independent government in Kabul, have the right to progress and prosperity, but would the American occupiers allow this to happen?
This is the million-dollar question being asked by patriotic Afghan citizens who are not so optimistic about the supposed peace agreement between the government in Kabul and the Taliban militia that was recently brokered – ironically by the US, the destroy-in-chief of Afghanistan and the enemy number one of the Afghan people.
This topic figured among other issues during the recently concluded visit to Tehran by Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, who held talks on the situation in Afghanistan following the intra-Afghan talks in Doha, with senior Iranian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian, and Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani.
Abdullah, who had earlier visited Pakistan and India, appreciated the Islamic Republic of Iran’s support for the Afghan peace process and the continuation of cooperation between Tehran and Kabul.
As a friend of Iran, he was cautioned by his hosts in Tehran to be alert against the devilish nature of the US which cannot be trusted and whose prime policy is based upon creation of chaos and insecurity, in every country where it sets foot.
Shamkhani was absolutely right when he pointed to his esteemed guest that "Washington’s destructive policies in the West Asia region have brought about nothing but wars, devastation and underdevelopment.”
He also drew Dr. Abdullah’s attention to the US role in the formation of terrorist groups, including Daesh, and said the only way for the Afghan people to avoid the dangerous American traps is resistance, unity and solidarity.
Hopefully these sincere advices will be heeded by our Afghan brothers, who seem to be very well informed about the background of the turncoat Pakhtoun, Zalmay Khalilzad, acting on behalf of the US as a ‘peace’ negotiator in spite of his open support for the American occupiers of his homeland, Afghanistan.
Khalilzad, the former US ambassador to Kabul (2003-05) and later to Baghdad, is an ardent advocate of American state terrorism throughout the region, including against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
These undeniable factors, including the diabolical track record of the US, warrant the Afghan people whatever their ethnicity – Pakhtouns, Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, and Balouch – to be wary of Washington’s claim to broker peace, which is actually a tool to tighten the American stranglehold.
There are indications the US is already planning to incite sectarian and ethnic clashes amongst the Afghan people through its deceitful policy of withdrawal.
In other words, Afghanistan cannot be an independent country and the Afghan people will not be able to enjoy peace, progress, and prosperity, unless they knit ranks to rise above narrow ethnic and sectarian differences, and boldly tell the Americans to stay out of their country and its affairs, including the formation of the future broad-based national government.
Anyway, as a well-wisher of the brotherly Afghan Muslims, with whom Iran shares longstanding historical, cultural, religious, lingual, political, and economic ties, it is ready to connect its gas and oil pipelines to Afghanistan, as well as complete the Khaf-Herat railway project to strengthen economic and trade cooperation between the two neighbouring countries.