A New Combination? The Iran-Afghanistan-Pakistan Meeting

Last Sunday there was an important summit, in symbolism and possibly in policy, in Tehran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad welcomed his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts, Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari.

Few in the US and Britain noticed the meeting, set out by the Iranians as both a complement and a counter-weight to the American strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. So we think this analysis by Iran Review, which includes pointed references to the "training [of] skilled troops in Afghanistan", counter-narcotics efforts, and a joint Iranian-Pakistani gas pipeline, deserves close attention.

Cooperation Triangle versus Talibanism

In the midst of the fighting between the Pakistani Army and the Taliban insurgents, Tehran played host to the presidents of its eastern neighbors, namely Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Asif Ali Zardari and Hamid Karzai in their summit with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran opened the file of a crisis which is facing total impasse.

The idea of holding the summit had been proposed by Tehran before. Iran’s proposed strategy was to mobilize the triangle’s potentials and capabilities to contain a regional threat. But to make such a line of thinking operational obviously required some time and opportunity.

The chance was provided when the schemes and tactics of trans-regional players had reached dead-end in Afghanistan and all the parties involved in the dispute, including Europe and the US admitted the failure of the NATO and underlined the significant role Afghanistan’s neighbors, particularly the Islamic Republic of Iran could play in this respect.

Now eight years have passed since George Bush issued the order to attack Afghanistan, however neither the Pentagon nor the NATO have any clear strategy to pull out of this fatal war. This is under conditions that the war in Afghanistan and the show of power by the Taliban has triggered riots in Pakistan as well. In the meantime, the Obama administration which is faced with a crisis of loss of credit, has urged its Afghan and Pakistani partners to put an immediate end to the war.

For the same reason, eyes are fixed on Iran and Russia as two powerful neighbors in the region. The invitation to Iran to attend the Hague conference was extended in this very line. It is also precisely due to Tehran’s influential role that Bernd Mutzelberg, the special envoy of Europe on Afghanistan and Pakistan will be traveling to Iran soon.

One reason that the West has turned to Iran as a key to solve the crisis goes back to a decade ago. Eight years ago, Iran was one of the countries which played a significant role in the overthrow of the Taliban. But this is not the only reason for the international community to tilt towards Tehran. In the Afghan crisis test, the Iranians refrained from ambitions and share demanding as other rivals did. This wisdom made the people and statesmen in Kabul and Islamabad to turn to Iranian diplomacy. The outcome of this change of outlook was the March conference in Pakistan where 32 countries reached initial agreement on regional security arrangements and war on terror.

Undoubtedly, the main axis of the Iran-Pakistan-Afghanistan summit in Tehran was war on terror but not the kind of war drawn up by George Bush and his secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.

Iran is after offering a solution which could minimize the presence of foreign troops in the region. Iran’s political logic is that Bush’s strategic mistakes were the cause of revival of Talibanism. Now again, the US missile attacks on the Pakistani territory has left impacts similar to what is happening in Afghanistan.

One of Iran’s strategic solutions in this respect is training skilled military troops in Afghanistan. Tehran believes that if the Afghan government succeeds in raising its defense and combat capabilities it would be able to fight against the Taliban without relying on foreign forces. For Iran, elimination of Talibanism in Afghanistan and Pakistan has significance beyond security issues. Taliban are now involved in producing a big portion of narcotic drugs and the Taliban insurgents are providing the cost of their dirty war from unending puppy cultivation and narcotic drugs. Therefore, one of Iran’s unchanging policies has been to check transit of narcotic drugs. For the same reason, Iran hopes that a rooted campaign against narcotic drugs would be launched in Afghanistan through extermination of the Taliban.

According to evidences, the terrorist networks would recruit their soldiers from among the poor. Therefore, providing welfare to the people and reconstruction of Afghanistan could prevent further influence of the Taliban among the vulnerable classes in the country. The Tehran summit would certainly discuss and present practical solutions in aiding Afghanistan in this connection.

For Iran, fighting against the Pakistani Taliban enjoys the same significance as countering their followers in Afghanistan.

Iran has been working on its gas pipeline project with Pakistan for years now. The security of Pakistan and its stability depends on containing Talibanism. As long as Pakistan lacks political and economic instability due to terrorism the implementation of the gas pipeline would not be possible. For the same reason, during the Tokyo conference, Tehran voluntarily extended an aid of 330 million dollars to the Islamabad government so that its fight against the Taliban would become more tangible.

In the opinion of observers, under the present conditions that the Pakistani army is engaged in heavy fighting with the Taliban, Iran enjoys potentials whereby to mobilize financial and moral supports for Islamabad.