Afghanistan’s Karzai to visit Iran soon

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is scheduled to travel to Iran soon, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia-Pacific and Commonwealth Affairs Ebrahim Rahimpour says.

“In this trip, Karzai will hold meetings with [Iranian] officials, particularly President Dr. [Hassan] Rouhani,” Rahimpour said in a Monday interview.

He pointed to Iran’s opposition to a security pact between Afghanistan and the United States as a measure that will “harm the long-term interests of the Afghan nation and government,” and said Tehran will convey its concerns over the issue to Karzai during his upcoming visit to Iran.

“Iran, as a friend of Afghanistan and Hamid Karzai himself, has stressed its concerns several times and it will again raise these issues and concerns in the course of the next trip,” the Iranian diplomat pointed out.

Rahimpour argued that al-Qaeda and Taliban are in favor of the security deal between Kabul and Washington, noting, “These extremist groups need a proper justification for continuing their actions, therefore, conclusion of this security pact will lay the groundwork for future measures by these groups.”

Washington, which had promised to withdraw all combat forces from Afghanistan by 2014, seeks to have a long-term military presence in the country by signing the security deal with Kabul.

The deal has already been approved by the Grand Council of Afghanistan, Loya Jirga, comprised of Afghan tribal elders and other leaders. However, Kabul says the pact must wait until after next year’s presidential election, even if it is approved by the Loya Jirga and the parliament.

Thousands of Afghan civilians, including a large number of women and children, have been killed during night raids by foreign forces and CIA-run assassination drone strikes since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.