Iran Seeks Increased Cooperation On Afghanistan

Security in Afghanistan directly and indirectly affects security in the region, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations has said while addressing a Security Council meeting on the situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security, on June 21. 

“Iran is indeed very eager to see a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan as its neighbor, security in Afghanistan directly and indirectly affects security in our borders and the region,” said Gholamali Khoshroo, Iran’s Permanent Representative to the UN, said, according to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency.

The participants at the meeting focused on a massive explosion that took place in a highly secure diplomatic area of Kabul on May 31, which resulted in about 90 deaths and 460 injuries, as well as damage to the German embassy. A June 15 terrorist attack on a Shia mosque in Kabul, where two people were killed and at least five injured, was also discussed.

The Iranian diplomat also called for a stronger, more coordinated approach between the Afghan government, donors and the United Nations, adding that deteriorating security in Afghanistan has deep roots and cannot be addressed solely through military buildup.

In May, at a meeting with National Security Adviser to the Afghan President Mohammad Hanif Atmar, the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani highlighted the need for joint countermeasures against certain countries which seek to cause insecurity and use it to have anti-Iranian terrorists in Afghanistan.

"To advance the agreements between Iran and Afghanistan requires constant monitoring in order to prevent adverse measures by other countries," Shamkhani said.

At the Wednesday meeting with the UN Security Council Khoshroo highlighted joint economic projects with Afghanistan as a way to change the security dynamic, saying that “these projects have the capacity to change the regional economic perspectives of Afghanistan. Such regional infrastructure initiatives can serve as an important way towards prosperity and stability in Afghanistan.”

In May 2016, Iran, Afghanistan and India signed a trilateral deal to turn the Iranian port of Chabahar into a transit hub, bypassing Pakistan, and to build a transport-and-trade corridor through Afghanistan, meant to link India to Afghanistan, Central Asia and Europe. The agreement would include the construction of Chabahar-Zahedan railway line in southeastern Iran.

In September 2016, Iranian and Afghan ministers initiated the establishment of a Herat-Khaf railway line along the Iran-Afghanistan border, in order to boost bilateral trade. In addition, a rail installation from Herat airport to the Turkmenistan border is planned, with financial support from Japan and the Asian Development Bank, according to the Afghan Finance Minister Eklil Hakimi.

“On anti-narcotics efforts, the increase of 43 percent rise in opium production, together with escalating heroin prices between 2015 and 2016, is a disturbing trend for us in the region and for the world. Any increase in narcotics is a reflection of the prevailing insecurity and poverty” Khoshroo said at the Security Council meeting.

Iran, which shares a 900 kilometer-long border with Afghanistan, has been a major transit route for smuggling Afghan drugs into Europe. Iran has spent more than $700 million on sealing its borders and preventing the transit of narcotics destined for European, Arab and Central Asian countries.

The fight against drug dealers from Afghanistan has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Iranian police officers over the past four decades, according to the Iranian Tasnim News agency.