US Needs Iran Help to Solve Afghan Issue

07/03/2009 | almanarTV

Iran said on Saturday the United States and world powers will be unable to restore stability in neighboring Afghanistan without the help of the Islamic republic.

"The US and global powers have realized that the issues in Afghanistan cannot be solved without the presence of the Islamic republic," Iranian government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters. He was speaking a day after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Brussels that Iran would be invited to attend a high-level conference on Afghanistan at the end of the month.

"There are a lot of reasons why Iran would be interested," she said. "So they will be invited. Obviously it is up to them to decide whether to come," she said, in what was seen as the latest overture by the US administration of President Barack Obama towards Iran. Elham said Tehran will consider the invitation.

"If they need us they can offer, and we will consider the invitation based on an attitude of helping Afghanistan in any way," he said. "Stability in Afghanistan and issues there are priorities for Iran, and it is important for us to help them."

Iran reacts to US invite for Afghan talks

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:43:23 GMT | PressTV

The Afghanistan summit comes amid a major stalemate in US military efforts in the war-hit country.

Iran weighs the Obama administration's plans to invite the country to attend an international conference on Afghanistan later this month.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wrapping up a trip to the Middle East and Europe, said Thursday that the Obama administration has plans to invite Tehran to attend a confab on Afghanistan.

"If we move forward with such a meeting, it is expected that Iran would be invited as a neighbor of Afghanistan," Clinton told reporters in Brussels.

While the move was regarded in the West as a "major overture" and a "dramatic turnaround," it was met with skepticism from some Iranian officials.

"This [invitation] is not a new phenomenon," said the head of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, on Friday.

"Washington and Tehran have previously discussed the Afghan security and development in the Bonn conference, during which Iranian officials played a constructive and active role," he said.

The UN-backed Bonn conference helped establish the Afghan government in 2001.

Tehran's contribution to Washington's war against the Taliban terrorists was to such extent that according to former US special envoy to Kabul, James Dobbin, "few countries were as helpful to the United States - in its early involvement in Afghanistan - as Iran."

Former National Security Council official, Flynt Leverett, has also, acknowledged Iran's help in stemming Afghan violence.

"Washington's engagement with Tehran over Afghanistan provided significant and tangible benefits for the American position during the early stages of the war on terror," he said.

Boroujerdi suggested that the Tehran government has yet to see a sign of change in Washington's foreign policy.

"We are still waiting for US President Barack Obama's promises to wipe the slate clean and 'change' Washington's long history of animosity towards Tehran," said Boroujerdi.