TEHRAN -- Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi arrived here Saturday at the head of a high-ranking delegation to hold talks with Iranian officials in the first such trip to the neighboring country since the group seized power. “The visit aims at discussions on political, economic, transit and refugee issues between Afghanistan and Iran,” Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said in a tweet. He added that a preliminary meeting for the visiting delegation was held in the
Afghan Foreign Ministry, “where significant issues were assessed and included in the agenda.”
Iran has repeatedly announced that the establishment of peace and stability in Afghanistan is only possible through the formation of a broad-based government in the war-ravaged country.
Iran has been hosting millions of Afghan migrants and refugees in recent decades but got sanctions instead of receiving financial support.
In an address to a UN Security Council meeting in November, Iran’s permanent ambassador to the United Nations Majid Takht-Ravanchi warned that Afghanistan’s neighbors should be helped out as they scramble to handle the outflux of refugees that has been created by decades of American adventurism in the Central Asian country.