DUSHANBE (Dispatches) -- The foreign ministers of Iran, Russia, China, and Pakistan have urged the formation of an inclusive government representing all ethnic groups in Afghanistan.
Hussein Amir-Abdollahian, Sergei Lavrov, Wang Yi, and Shah Mahmood Qureshi made the call on Thursday as they held a quadrilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in the capital of Tajikistan.
The issue of Afghanistan also came up in a separate meeting between the Iranian and Chinese foreign ministers.
Amir-Abdollahian described the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan as the only desirable outlook for the Central Asian country’s political future.
He said the surprise U.S. pullout from Afghanistan after two decades of occupation was a “disastrous” episode, the fallout of which has come to haunt Afghanistan’s neighbors.
The withdrawal is another testimony to Washington’s unconstructive unilateralism similar to its illegal withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, he added.
Amir-Abdollahian called the U.S. “the prime culprit” in undermining the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), saying “the White House has to learn to stop using a threatening tone towards the Iranian nation”.
He also said the new Iranian government’s foreign policy is geared towards Asia, stressing its resolve to advance relations with China in line with the two countries’ comprehensive strategic cooperation roadmap.
The two sides signed the deal earlier this year, charting out the contours of their strategic ties for the next 25 years.
The Chinese foreign minister, for his part, communicated Beijing’s interest in further expansion of relations in line with the roadmap.