ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that Pakistan welcomes Iran’s engagement with Afghan parties to achieve a negotiated political settlement.
“Pakistan considers the role of Iran in the Afghan peace process important,” the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said on Friday in response to queries from some media colleagues on the visit of Taliban and Afghan government delegations to Tehran.
“Iran, like Pakistan, is a neighbouring country of Afghanistan and host to millions of Afghan refugees,” Chaudhry added.
The Spokesperson said that we hope that the Afghan parties would seize the opportunity and achieve an inclusive, broad-based, and comprehensive political settlement.
On Wednesday, an Afghan government delegation headed by the former Vice President Younus Qanooni and Taliban representatives led by Shir Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai held talks in Tehran.
Later a joint statement was issued, according to which, the two sides agreed that “war is not the solution to the Afghanistan problem” and that all efforts must be made for a peaceful political solution.
The two sides also agreed to continue talks on the specific mechanisms of establishing an Islamic state at a later meeting.
