Shamkhani: Our Talks with the Taliban Have Been Informing the Afghan Government

Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Republic, who traveled to Kabul, announced on Wednesday during a meeting with his Afghan counterpart that Iran has been engaged in ongoing negotiations with the Taliban, and these discussions have been conducted with the knowledge of the Afghan government. According to Tasnim News Agency, Admiral Ali Shamkhani, representative of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, made this statement on Wednesday, January 5, at the head of a political, military, and security delegation during his meeting with Hamdullah Mohib, the National Security Advisor of Afghanistan. He pointed out that the ongoing discussions between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Taliban group have been conducted with the Afghan government's awareness and that this process will continue. Mr. Shamkhani stated that the aim of Tehran's dialogue with the Taliban is to 'help resolve existing security problems in Afghanistan' but did not provide further details. The Taliban currently controls a significant portion of Afghan territory, and while the United States is negotiating with this group to reach a peaceful solution, some reports indicate that President Donald Trump is seeking to withdraw thousands of American troops from Afghanistan. The Iranian government once considered the Taliban one of its greatest security threats, but the relationship between the Islamic Republic of Iran and this group has taken on new dimensions in recent years. During its rule over Afghanistan, the Taliban regime suppressed Afghanistan's Shia minorities with its radical interpretation of Sunni Islam and was directly opposed to the Iranian religious and Shia regime in the internal and regional conflict over Afghanistan. However, after some time following the fall of the Taliban government and the resurgence of their insurgent operations, some Afghan government officials and Taliban leaders stated that Iran and the Taliban are now attempting to collaborate in covert operations to prevent the expansion of the influence of the 'Islamic State' (ISIS) in Afghanistan. There have always been scattered reports regarding this matter until finally, on May 21 of this year, Mohammad Reza Bahrami, the Iranian ambassador to Afghanistan, confirmed the Islamic Republic's 'contact' with the Taliban group. He explained: 'We have explicitly stated that we are in contact with the Taliban and have not turned this contact into a relationship because we did not want to legitimize the Taliban.' The Islamic Republic has described its relationship with the Taliban in terms of 'contact' and denies supporting this group, while the United States has made such accusations against the Islamic Republic. Among these, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the Taliban and eight of its supporters on November 23, stating that two of them are Iranian and linked to the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The department named 'Mohammad Ebrahim Ohadi' and 'Ismail Razavi' and accused them of supporting the Taliban from the Quds Force by providing financial and technical resources. A week later, Brian Hook, the U.S. Special Representative for Iran, accused Iran of continuing to provide military support to the Taliban in Afghanistan during a press conference. Brian Hook accused Iran on Thursday, December 8, of continuing to equip Houthi militants with its weapons and providing military support to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Shortly after, security officials in Ghazni province of Afghanistan reported the discovery and seizure of Iranian-made weapons and ammunition in Ghazni, but the Iranian embassy in Kabul denied the attribution of these weapons to Iran.