*MOSCOW – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that his country hasan interest in including Iran in the Russia-China-U.S. format for Afghanpeace talks.*
“We have a dialogue with [the United States] on Afghanistan. There is aRussia-China-U.S. format that Pakistan has joined. There is interest inconnecting Iran to this format. [We believe] It can be promising,” Lavrovsaid.
Chief negotiators for the U.S. and Taliban held nine rounds of directtalks, until they agreed “in principle” to a framework for peace, ArianaNews has reported.
However, U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly cancelled peace negotiationswith the Taliban in September this year.
Following the collapse of U.S.-Taliban talks, a Taliban delegationtravelled to Iran and Russia to discuss the peace process but additionaldetails of these discussions have not been disclosed.
In late October, representatives of China, Russia, the United States andPakistan held talks in Moscow where they discussed ways to assistAfghanistan in achieving lasting peace. The Four-Party meeting issued ajoint statement, calling for an early resumption of U.S.-Taliban talks.
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Moscow and Tehran are allies but Washington and Tehran have a hostilepolicy toward each other.
“Iran is our neighbor [and] that involves in different issues related toAfghanistan. We have more than two million refugees in Iran. So, Tehran’sinvolvement in negotiation is needed,” said Sayed Ishaq Gailani, the leaderof Hezb-e-Nuhzat Hambastagi Milli, a political party in Afghanistan.
“The Four-Party meeting was effective, because these countries can make adecision for Afghanistan. If United States allows it, Iran can play a rolein the Afghan peace process,” said Sayed Akbar Agha, a former member of theTaliban militant group.
In December 2018, Tehran announced that it had been holding talks with theTaliban with the knowledge of the Afghan government.
