FM: Iran Supports Promotion Of Regional Co-op For Sustainable Development In Afghanistan

Kabul, June 14, IRNA – Visiting Foreign Minister of Iran Ali-Akbar Salehi said Thursday that promotion of regional cooperation to help sustainable development in Afghanistan was one of Iran's principal stances regarding its eastern neighboring state. Salehi arrived in Kabul earlier on Thursday heading a delegation to attend a day-long regional conference on the future of Afghanistan which was inaugurated here with President Hamid Karzai's speech. The meeting ís attended by representatives of 13 regional countries and 12 representatives from countries outside the region. Thirteen international organizations are reportedly attending as well. Salehi made the remarks in his address to the conference. Recalling Iran's cooperation in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, the Iranian foreign minister said that Tehran has played an active role in Afghanistan based on the commitments made by the former in previous international meetings on Afghanistan. Salehi also announced Iran's deep concerns over the increasing growth of violence and insecurity in Afghanistan as well as the repeated cases of foreign troops' human rights violations and manslaughter in the country. The minister added that a decade of foreign troops' presence in Afghanistan has had nothing for the country but the worsening of its security situation, institutionalization of terrorism, growth of illegal drugs production and smuggling as well as increasing of organized crimes, massacre of civilians and destruction of cities and villages in large scales. Therefore, Tehran would welcome the agreement made by Kabul and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan by 2014 and bestowing the country's security control to its domestic forces, Salehi stressed. He noted that solving the problem of drugs smuggling in Afghanistan has required an international will and effort. Afghanistan's drugs smuggling network was closely related to the terrorist groups inside the country as they used its incomes for their terrorist activities, said the minister. He expressed hope that the ongoing meeting would help promotion of sustainable development in Afghanistan./end