A senior Iranian diplomat said on Sunday that in urging the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan, Tehran did not mean this to be a coalition or power-sharing administration.
Sayed Rasoul Mousavi, director of the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s South Asia division, welcomed a recent meeting held by the Afghan Foreign Ministry on Kabul-Tehran relations, but said that speakers misunderstood Iran’s call for an inclusive government in Afghanistan.
He stressed that Tehran wants a stable country in its neighborhood.
Jafari Mahdavi, a participant at the meeting, had called on Iran to abandon its demand for an inclusive government in Afghanistan, saying that it is an internal issue.
Mousavi, however, said on X: “The inclusive government is not a coalition government, it is not a power-sharing government, it is not a collection of opponents. Government is inclusive if it effectively includes and serves all members of society.”
Mahdavi responded on his Facebook account saying that his remarks were not fully published by the deputy spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Earlier, Massoud Pezshekian, who recently took office as Iran’s new president, said in an article that he was in favor of improving and expanding relations with Iran’s neighbors as part of his country’s foreign policy.
