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U.S. And Iran Find Common Cause At International Conference On Afgha

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  • U.S. And Iran Find Common Cause At International Conference On Afgha

    U.S. AND IRAN FIND COMMON CAUSE AT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AFGHANISTAN

    PanARMENIAN.Net
    01.04.2009 10:55 GMT+04:00

    /PanARMENIAN.Net/ The U.S. and Iran found common cause Tuesday in
    battling Afghanistan's drugs trade and rebuilding the war-torn nation
    but Tehran warned its old foe that a planned troop surge would not
    bring security.

    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said top American and
    Iranian officials had met briefly at the international conference on
    stabilizing Afghanistan in The Hague.

    "In the course of the conference today, our special representative
    for Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, had a brief and cordial exchange
    with the head of the Iranian delegation," she told a press conference.

    But in a sign that Tehran and Washington are still far from reconciling
    on Afghanistan, Iran's representative Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh
    warned that President Barack Obama's promised surge of U.S. troops
    was a mistake.

    "The presence of foreign forces has not improved things in the country
    and it seems that an increase in the number of foreign forces will
    prove ineffective too," the Iranian deputy foreign minister told
    the conference

    Obama said last Friday that the United States would send 4,000 more
    troops to train Afghan security forces in addition to an extra 17,000
    already committed.

    At the conference, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. Secretary
    of State Hillary Clinton both said dialogue with moderate members of
    the Taliban could help stem the insurgency.

    And in a rare meeting of minds, Clinton and Iran's representative
    stressed their support for projects to rebuild Afghanistan and end
    its role as the epicenter of the global heroin trade that finances
    Al-Qaeda activities.

    "Trafficking in narcotics, the spread of violent extremism, economic
    stagnation (in Afghanistan) are regional challenges that will require
    regional solutions," said Clinton as she sat across the table from
    Iran's envoy.

    She was addressing Karzai, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and
    representatives of 90 countries and organizations meeting in The Hague.

    "Iran is fully prepared to participate in the projects aimed at
    combating drug trafficking and the plans in line with developing and
    reconstructing Afghanistan," Akhoundzadeh told delegates, AFP reports.
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