Iran said Taliban representatives from Afghanistan negotiated with Iranian officials in Tehran on Sunday, as the Islamic Republic seeks to advance peace talks in the neighboring country to curb the influence of other Islamist groups.
The talks were held with the knowledge of Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and were intended to set parameters for negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said on Monday.
“A Taliban delegation was in Tehran yesterday. They had comprehensive negotiations with the Iranian deputy foreign minister,” Bahram Qasemi said in a news conference broadcast live on state television.
The Taliban, seeking to re-impose strict Islamic law in Afghanistan after their 2001 overthrow, say the presence of international forces there is the main obstacle to peace. Even as the peace process gathers momentum, fighting has continued with heavy casualties on both sides.
The so-called Islamic State fighters have increasingly been gaining a foothold in Afghanistan in recent years, clashing with both government and Taliban forces and alarming neighboring nations.
Taliban sources said this month that they had also negotiated with the US officials over proposals for a six-month ceasefire in Afghanistan and a future withdrawal of foreign troops.
Also in December, Afghan forces abandoned a remote western district bordering Iran, leaving the area to the Taliban after the government failed to resupply troops stationed there.
This comes after Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on December 28 that Iranian officials have met with the Taliban and that its details were shared with the Afghan government in Shamkhani’s trip to Kabul last week.
At least two weeks ago, US and Taliban officials held meetings in Abdu Dhabi to discuss a political settlement and ways to facilitate direct talks between the militants and the Afghan government.
The Taliban said they also held meetings with officials from the UAE, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, but the militants refused to meet a delegation from Afghanistan.
