TEHRAN, Nov. 9 (MNA) – An Afghan party chief has rejected Western claims that Iran is interfering in Afghanistan’s internal affairs.
Mohammad Hassan Jafari, the secretary general of the Afghan National Welfare Party, told a roundtable discussion hosted by the Mehr News Agency that such accusations by the West are attempts to cover up their failures in Afghanistan.
“Westerners accuse Iran of interfering in Afghanistan’s affairs while the Islamic Republic itself is a victim of terrorism and even in a single case in 1998 it lost 11 diplomats and a reporter,” Jafari said in a reference to the murder of Iranian diplomats at a consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif by the Taliban.
The party chief said Iran and Afghanistan share 900-kilometer border and “the Islamic Republic is seeking security in Afghanistan because it considers security in the country as security in its borders.”
Pointing to Iran’s support for Mujahedin groups in the fight against the Soviet Army, he said, “Iran’s support for Kabul has been unprecedented and unique.”
Zohouri Hosseini, an expert on Afghanistan, said Iran’s involvement in the reconstruction of the war-stricken country should not be interpreted as interference.
Hosseini said Iran is among major countries which have made some commitments in international conferences to help rebuild the country.
The expert went on to say that the Afghan Shia community, which constitutes about 30 percent of the country’s population, and even half of the Sunnis are interested in Iran.
At a time that Christian missionaries are propagating their religion in Afghanistan it is Iran’s right to interact with a nation which shares language, cultural and religious commonalties.
He said interaction with Afghanistan is different from interference as exercised by the West’s military and political intervention in the Central Asian country.
After the Mujahedin defeated the Soviet Army they intended to establish an Islamic Republic like the Islamic Republic of Iran and in order to prevent such a thing from happening the West supported Taliban to suppress the Mujahedin as a modern Islamists.
Ali Vahedi, also an expert on Afghanistan, also said accusation of interference in Afghanistan is a desperate attempt by the West to justify its failure in Afghanistan.
Vahedi said claims of interference in Afghanistan by Iran are not something new and such accusations were leveled against Tehran during the Soviet occupation of the country in the 1980s.
He said since the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan no government in Kabul has said that Iran has been interfering in the country.
“Contrary to the West’s relations with Afghanistan which have been of colonial nature Tehran’s relations with Kabul has always been fraternal.”
Iran has suffered greatly since the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 by hosting millions of refuges. Iran has also been the main victim of drug trafficking from Afghanistan.
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