Iran pledged continued backing for the campaign to restore Afghanistan's peace and stability and said it would welcome any request from its eastern neighbor for advisory assistance.
"Iran continues its full support for the promotion of security and stability with comprehensive and sustainable development in Afghanistan and lends its support to any Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled call for reconciliation and peace process," said Gholamali Khoshroo, the ambassador to the United Nations. "It is in this context that we welcomed to participate in the Kabul process and endorsed its final declaration in February this year, as well as any other similar processes, to help achieve peace and security in Afghanistan," he told a debate of the UN Security Council over the situation in Afghanistan on Thursday.
Iran was among the 26 foreign countries that, along with the UN and European Union, issued a four-page declaration at the end of the second meeting of the Kabul Process for Peace and Security Cooperation on February 28.
Under the declaration, the participants committed to cooperate with the Afghan government on furthering the peace process in the violence-ridden country "in accordance with the principles of international law, including that of sovereign equality of states and non-interference in their internal affairs."
Strong Bonds
Iran has had close relations with Afghanistan over the years and hosts a large Afghan refugee community for more than 30 years ever since Afghans first fled the Soviet invasion.
Security still remains the major challenge for Afghanistan.
The Taliban insurgency pushed the country further into a dire situation, worsened by the 2001 US-led invasion under the guise of war on terror and rising attacks by the self-styled Islamic State terrorist to establish a foothold in the insurgency-plagued country.
Having recently lost the vast swathes of territory they occupied in their surprise 2014 attack to Iraq and Syria, the IS militants are seeking to reorganize in Afghanistan by exploiting the poor security situation there as a result of the Taliban's operations and foreign occupation.
Khoshroo noted that the Afghan peace effort is vital to security and stability in the wider Middle East.
"The Afghan national unity government is in the forefront of fighting terrorism, in particular the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Daesh [an Arabic Acronym for IS] and its affiliates as well as other terrorist and extremist groups and criminals. The sustained support of the international community is much more needed to support the Afghan government in this fight as well as to address its complex security, economic and political challenges," the envoy said, according to a transcript of his remarks carried by IRNA.
Decisive Help
Elsewhere, Defense Minister Amir Hatami said Iran is ready to offer counter-terrorism advice if requested by the Kabul government, just as it did in Iraq and Syria, which proved instrumental in ultimately driving the IS terrorist group out late last year.
"We are ready to lend advisory and security assistance to [Afghanistan's] national unity government if there is a formal request," Hatami said in a meeting with the visiting Afghan deputy defense minister for policy and strategy, Ahmad Tamim Asi, on Thursday, Fars News Agency reported.
Tamim Asi stressed the need to speed up bilateral cooperation and vowed to counter any attempt by outsiders to drive a wedge between the two neighbors.
