Posted on 10/03/2001 9:51:08 PM PDT by Ymani Cricket
Taliban Seek Ties With Iran
Updated on 2001-10-03 13:08:05
ISLAMABAD, October 03 (PNS): A day after Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said his country was "re-evaluating" ties with the Taliban, the Kabul regime has sent a delegation to Tehran to discuss Iranian "cooperation" if the US attacks Afghanistan, IANS reports.
"The delegation reached Tehran this Tuesday and would be meeting senior officials of the Iranian government," a senior official at the Taliban embassy said.
He said the delegation includes seven important members of the ruling militia, including Taliban Rehabilitation Minister Mulla Abdul Naqib and Deputy Foreign Minister Mulla Abdur Rahman Zahid.
Naqib is said to be a close associate of Taliban supreme commander Mulla Mohammed Omar and was among the Taliban team members that negotiated with the Pakistani religious delegation in Kandahar last week.
The mission official said the Taliban decided to send its delegation after receiving an invitation from Iran Monday evening. He said the invitation came from Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He said the delegation was received by senior officials of the Iranian government at the Iran-Afghan border and flown to Tehran in an Iranian air force plane.
When asked if Iran would be helping them in case of war, he said: "It would be premature to say. The dialogue has yet not started. This was one of the steps we are taking to tackle the situation." Musharraf in an interview with BBC Monday said the days of the Taliban appeared to be numbered and his government was "re-evaluating" relations with the militia as policies are dependent on situations.
"Once the reality changes, you have to re-evaluate your policies," Musharraf told BBC. "It appears that the U.S. will take action in Afghanistan, and we have conveyed this to the Taliban... that was the reason we were interacting with them so that some moderation takes place and maybe this kind of action is averted."
Iran last week said it would provide no help to the U.S. vis-à-vis Afghanistan.
"Iran will provide no help to America in an attack on suffering, neighbouring, Muslim Afghanistan," Khamenei said in his speech a day after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Iran should halt its "terrorism."
The Afghan mission official said they were expecting "big" help from Iran. "We hope they would agree to take some civilians as refugees and help in establishing a coalition of Afghan groups to fight the U.S.," he said.
Iran has strong following among some parties of the Northern Alliance. It has always favoured Afghanistan's opposition alliance that holds 10 percent territory in their struggle against Taliban.
Former Afghanistan prime minister and chief of Hizb-e-Islami Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has been in Iran since the Taliban took over Kabul in 1996. Hekmatyar, who had been with the Northern Alliance against the Taliban, had already announced support to the militia in case of any "outside" attack.
A top Northern Alliance general, meanwhile, thanked Russia and other allies for their support but called for urgent relief for the desperate situation his troops are facing.
"We have neither arms nor ammunition, there is a catastrophic lack of medicine and medical staff, many wounded die due to loss of blood," General Abdul Rashid Dostum was quoted as saying in an interview to Russian newspaper Vremya Novosti published Tuesday.
"We also need boots, as many soldiers are simply barefoot, while we have to make long, hard marches. I would be thankful if we are helped. What makes us happy is that we have no enemies in the north, and that we have friends, like Russia." End.
You tell me. I didn't write the article. And Khamenei sent the invitation. So you tell me. Iran is the power house exporter of Shi'ite revolution to the middle east. Perhaps that has something to do with it. And perhaps "my enemies enemy is my friend" has meaning to them as well.
AFP--Iran's Foreign Ministry denied on Tuesday reports that Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei had invited a high-ranking delegation from Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to visit Tehran. Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi told the state IRNA news agency said the report was "ridiculous," "baseless" and unfounded.
The ministry also declined to confirm reports of a visit by such a delegation to Iran. Earlier Tuesday, Afghan officials announced that a high-ranking Afghan Taliban delegation would travel to Tehran at the invitation of Khamenei.
The delegation was headed by the Islamic mili-tia's minister for refugees Malawi Abdul Raqib, and included Deputy Foreign Minister Abdul Rahman Zahid, an Afghan foreign ministry offi-cial told AFP.
They flew to Herat in western Afghanistan Tuesday and would be taken by helicopter to the Iranian border and then on to Tehran by plane, the official said.
"The visit has come at the direct invitation of Ayatollah Khamenei," said the official, who gave no details of the proposed discussions. Former Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar told AFP in Tehran that the dispatch of such a delegation was to be expected.
He said Iran's plan to establish camps for Afghan refugees on the Afghan side of the bor-der would require talks with the Taliban. "If this delegation wishes to see me, I will receive them," Hekmatyar added.
Iran, which is vehemently opposed to the hardline Taliban, closed its eastern border with Afghanistan several weeks ago to prevent any major influx of refugees fleeing the threat of US military action.
Iran was swift to condemn the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, but has refused to cooperate with the United States in any military strikes against Afghanistan, which Washington claims is sheltering prime suspect Osama bin Laden.
Verification: I was told exactly the same thing by some Iranian friends of mine.
Why in the hell would Shiite Iran help out the Sunni Taliban, especially when its known that the Taliban has brutally oppressed and slaughtered Shiites in Afghanistan for years?
This statement pretty much says it all, and if I remember correctly, Iran and Afghanistan were nearly at war with each other not long ago.
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