Iran, US, Afghanistan to take part in security meeting early October

Afghanistan announced that it is due to host a security meeting among Tehran, Washington and Kabul in the Western province of Heart on October 5-6. "The representatives of Iran, Afghanistan and the US will have tri-partite talks to study security issues," Director of Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS) Davoud Moradian said in a press conference on Sunday. He said that the tri-partite talks will be held on the sidelines of the Herat 2 security meeting with over 30 international organizations and state, parliament and NGO representatives in attendance. "At this meeting, security issues beyond the military issues will be studied and discussed," Moradian underlined. Early in August, Iran and Afghanistan signed a strategic cooperation agreement in a meeting between the two country’s top national security officials. The document was signed in Tehran between former Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili and Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s National Security Advisor Rangin Dadfar Spanta, during which the two officials discussed expansion of bilateral ties. During the meeting, Jalili described Iranian-Afghan relations as “deep and friendly” and further stated that the agreement would lead to the enhancement of strategic collaborations in various areas. He also underlined that preparation and implementation of the pact “will be a bright step in the history of relations between the two countries.” Jalili added that security, stability, progress and welfare of the Afghan population is “the interest and desire of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” expressing optimism that with the speedy implementation of terms of the agreement “we would witness the expansion of the level of regional security. For his part, Spanta said the signed document marks the beginning of process to boost bilateral relations between the two neighbors in different fields “to a strategic level,” satisfying the interests of both nations. Afghanistan has been ravaged by a war started by a US-led military occupation since 2001 under the pretext of a "war on terror". The intervention has led expanded terror and insecurity across the war-torn nation, further leading to increased narcotics production and trade, mass displacement of civilians and destruction of the country's major infrastructure.