Iran, Afghanistan vow to cooperate on security strategies

Iran and Afghanistan have pledged to enhance and facilitate cooperation to arrive at common strategies in areas related to national security.

The pledge was made in a joint statement by Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani and Afghanistan’s National Security Advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar issued in Tehran on Sunday.

In their statement, Shamkhani and Atmar stressed the importance of establishing sustainable relations and promoting welfare and calm for the Iranian and Afghan people.

They also emphasized the need for helping the economic development of Afghanistan.

The Afghan official was on a two-day official visit to Tehran at the invitation of the SNSC secretary to hold talks with senior Iranian officials. He met and conferred with Shamkhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday about issues of common interest in such sectors as security, politics, economy and borders.

Enemies, regional puppets seek insecurity: Iran interior minister

Iran’s Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said on Sunday that foreign enemies and their regional allies seek to keep up and spread the insecurity in the region.

“Our common enemies – namely the US, Israel and their regional agents – do not want security for the region, examples of which we are witnessing in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen,” Rahmani Fazli said in a meeting with Atmar.

He noted that cultural, historical and political commonalities between Iran and Afghanistan have prepared the proper ground for the strengthening of cooperation between the two countries in different sectors.

The minister said the fifth session of Iran-Afghanistan joint economic commission would be held in Tehran next week in order to discuss ways to reach agreements on a variety of issues, including sharing water from joint river basins, Afghan refugees, drug trafficking, as well as transit and border security.

He expressed Iran’s readiness to carry out economic projects in Afghanistan.

Atmar, for his part, praised Iran’s measures to boost cooperation with his country, saying that Afghanistan is resolved to fight terrorist groups such as Daesh.

He added that Afghanistan believes that terrorism cannot be divided into good and bad categories and that the expansion of cordial relations is the best possible way to combat terrorism.