Iran Invites Islamic Insurgents, Insists Intermediary is Ineffective

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif last week hosted a rare meeting with the Taliban’s political leader Abdul Ghani Baradar amid stalled negotiations between the insurgent group and the Afghan government and following news of NATO’s plans to retain hundreds of troops in Afghanistan beyond the May deadline set by the Trump administration, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported Sunday. Despite past hostility between the Shi’ite Islamic Republic and the Sunni terror organization battling the Kabul government, the two have over the years learned to join hands behind the scenes against Western forces. According to Tasnim, Zarif warned Baradar that Washington was not a “good mediator” between the Taliban and the Afghan government. Last year, former President Donald Trump reached a deal with the group, under which all foreign troops would evacuate Afghanistan in return for an end to hostilities and a power-sharing agreement between the Taliban and Kabul. Negotiations over such an agreement, held in Doha, recently hit a snag, and the entire deal between the US and the insurgents is itself being reviewed by the new White House administration. NATO officials, meanwhile, told Reuters on Sunday that “there will be no full withdrawal by allies by April-end,” since “conditions have not been met.”