A general view shows the first meeting of national security secretaries of Afghanistan, China, Iran, India and Russia, in the Iranian capital Tehran on September 26, 2018

Fatemeh Aman

Can Iran Help Reach a Lasting Peace in Afghanistan?

Progress has been reported in peace talks between US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and the Taliban, but without the participation of the Afghan government, it seems premature to assume that an agreement will be reached soon. Could Iran play a constructive role in achieving an end to America’s longest war?   Despite their lack of diplomatic relations and enduring hostility, Iran and the United States have kept some channels of dialogue open since the 1979 revolution. These ...

 
© SFCR
© ICANA
Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran (C) speaks during the first meeting of national security secretaries of Afghanistan, China, Iran, India and Russia, in the Iranian capital Tehran on September 26, 2018.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani (C) with Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov President of Turkmenistan (2L), Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi (R) and India
Hamid Karzai, formerly the President of Afghanistan, Russia
In this photograph taken on December 23, 2017, Afghan school children play at an open-air school at the Gambiri Refugee Camp in Laghman province
Afghanistan
Iran
Russian Federation Ambassador, Alexander Mantytskiy, left, hands over an AK-47 to Afghan National Security Advisor, Mohammad Hanif Atmar, center, at Kabul International Airport, on February 24, 2016. The Russian embassy in Kabul announced that the Russian government handed over 10,000 AK47s as a military donation to Afghan National Security Forces
Soldiers with a Russian national flag during a military command-staff exercise by a joint Russian-Tajik force at Kharbmaidon, next to the border to Afghanistan
A general view shows the first meeting of national security secretaries of Afghanistan, China, Iran, India and Russia, in the Iranian capital Tehran on September 26, 2018
The national security advisers of Afghanistan, China, Iran, India and Russia held the first meeting of the Iran-sponsored Regional Security Dialogue, Tehran, Sept. 26, 2018. Getty Images
Afghan women walk away from the site of an ongoing attack on the Iraqi embassy in Kabul on July 31, 2017
The foreign ministers of China, Afghanistan and Pakistan meet the press at the Diaoyutai state guesthouse in Beijing on Dec. 26 following talks earlier in the day, the first of their kind.
Afghan security force personnel take part in an ongoing operation against an Islamic State (IS) militant stronghold in Achin district of Nangarhar, eastern Afghanistan on April 14, 2017