Afghanistan 0
24 July 2020

The U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, reportedly remarked that “Iran was expected to cooperate more with the Afghan peace process and the intra-Afghan talks, but it didn’t”. He further argues that Iranian officials’ remarks implied that “they want a formula in which the U.S. should leave Afghanistan without reaching peace”. Khalilzad’s Iranian counterpart subsequently asserted that “Iran supports peace and stability in Afghanistan and stresses the need to establish peace based on the outcome of intra-Afghan talks owned and led by the Afghans… We recommend U.S. officials first carefully review the stances [of Iranian authorities] before expressing their opinions about the viewpoints of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s officials about regional and Afghan issues”.

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