Iran's Zarif:

Tehran(IP)-  Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Javad Zarif, in an online  International Conference on Afghanistan, said: The military approach to building peace has failed, and foreign troops’ presence has been a lingering problem.

Iran PressIran news: The full text of the Foreign Minister's speech is as follows,

Dear Friends,

It is a tragedy of epic proportions that twenty years after the Bonn conference, we are still talking about war in Afghanistan. For over 40 years, Afghans have endured bloodshed, perpetrated primarily from the outside.

The military approach to building peace has failed, and foreign troops’ presence has been a lingering problem. A responsible exit of foreign forces from Afghanistan—with a smooth and effective assumption of their duties by the Afghan security forces—will be a positive step toward sustainable peace.

Iran has always supported intra-Afghan dialogue, owned and led by Afghans themselves, which should include the Taliban, and which preserves the post-2001 achievements: the democratic Constitution,  the right of the people to self-determination through elections, the rights of religious and ethnic minorities, the rights of women; and combatting terrorism. The UN should be central in facilitating intra-Afghan dialogue, and Iran stands ready to cooperate.

Dear Friends,

We all know that poverty and unemployment are fertile grounds for extremism, terrorism, and drug trafficking. Peace will not be sustainable if Afghans have to struggle to simply survive.

For our part,

We host over 3 million Afghans, using our subsidized food, transport, and health services, in spite of savage US economic war against our people.

470000 Afghan students attend our schools,

22000 Afghans are training at Iranian universities.

We connect Afghanistan to the outside world through Chabahr; the Khaf-Herat railway will be inaugurated in the coming days.

Our power plants provide electricity for the Afghan people.  

And we can do far more in the field of energy.  

But instead of facilitating, the US—through its economic terrorism targeting Iranians and Afghans alike—impedes such cooperation.

Also, international donors have a seriously flawed approach—exemplified in speakers’ order in this meeting, putting the neighbors last.

The world must put the people of Afghanistan before other considerations.

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