DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran has been holding talks with Afghanistan’s Taliban with the knowledge of the Afghan government, a senior Iranian security official was quoted by the official news agency IRNA as saying on Wednesday during a visit to Kabul. Talks between Iran and the Taliban were held “to help curb the security problems in Afghanistan,” Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was quoted by IRNA as saying. Majority-Shiite Iran has long had close ties to the Shiites in neighboring Afghanistan whose militias have fought the Taliban’s Sunni militants. But in recent months Afghan officials have accused Tehran, which the United States says is trying to extend its influence in western Afghanistan, of providing the Taliban with money, weapons and explosives. Earlier this month, Afghan forces abandoned a remote western district bordering Iran, leaving the area to the Taliban after the government failed to resupply troops stationed there.

Source: Egypt Independent December 26, 2018 14:15 UTC