U.S. and Iran find common cause at international conference on Afghanistan

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.