Tehran will help restore security to Afghanistan

Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli has emphasized the importance of improving security in Afghanistan, expressing the Islamic Republic’s readiness to help restore peace in the war-torn country.

“Afghanistan’s security is important to us… Tehran understands the country’s situation and will cooperate to restore peace to Afghanistan,” Rahmani Fazli said in a meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Friday.

He added that Tehran and Kabul enjoy amicable relations and emphasized that as a close neighbor, the Islamic Republic believes that “a threat to Afghanistan will in fact be a threat to Iran.”

The Iranian minister called for the two countries to strengthen cooperation in economy, the fight against terrorism and smuggling of narcotics as well as border control.

The Afghan president, for his part, said Kabul is keen to bolster trade ties with Iran, particularly after the conclusion of a nuclear agreement between Tehran and six world powers.

Ghani added that minor differences between the two countries in some issues should not hinder the expansion of cooperation.

Iran, which has a 900-kilometer (560-mile) common border with Afghanistan, has been used by traffickers as the main conduit for smuggling Afghan drugs to narcotics kingpins in Europe.

Despite high economic and human costs, the Islamic Republic has been actively fighting drug trafficking over the past three decades.

Fight against terrorism

In a separate meeting with Afghanistan’s National Security Adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar, the Iranian interior minister said the two countries’ relationship is based on good neighborliness.

Iran is committed to cooperation with Afghanistan in the fight against terrorism and extremism, Rahmani Fazli stated, adding that the removal of new security threats is among the Islamic Republic’s national security priorities.

Atmar, for his part, said the campaign against terrorism requires joint efforts by all countries in the region and expressed Afghanistan’s readiness to cooperate with Iran in this regard.

He said the Afghan nation is a victim of terrorism and called for Tehran’s cooperation to fight the ominous phenomenon.