Daily Times

Iran, who had avoided criticizing the Taliban since their capture of Kabul on August 15, on Monday, has finally censured the Taliban’s military bellicose in Panjshir Valley, following the capture of the valley three weeks earlier by the members of National Resistance Front of Afghanistan led by Ahmad Massoud.

“The news coming from Panjshir is truly worrying,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters. “The assault is strongly condemned.”

The Taliban on Monday had declared victory against anti-Taliban fighters in the Panjshir area, with a spokesman mentioning “our country is completely taken out of the quagmire of war.” But NRF in response said that its fighters were still present in “strategic positions” across the valley and that they were continuing the resistance.

“On the question of Panjshir, I have insisted on the fact that it is resolved by dialogue in the presence of all the Afghan elders,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Khatibzadeh said.

“The Taliban must equally respect their obligations in terms of international law, and their commitments,” he added, affirming that “Iran will work to put an end to all the suffering of the Afghan people in favour of establishing a representative government for all Afghans”.

Asserting to Pakistan, Khatibzadeh said Iran denounced “all foreign interference” in Afghan affairs.
“We would like to inform our friends, and those who might make the strategic error of entering Afghanistan with different intentions, that Afghanistan is not a country which accepts the enemy (or) the aggressor” on its soil, he further added.

Iran, which hosts nearly 3.5 million Afghans, refused to recognise the Taliban during their 1996 to 2001 spell in power. But now Tehran has revised their policy towards the Taliban since their unexpected seizure of Kabul amid the US withdrawal last month.