Iran blames US for Afghans’ suffering, calls for all-inclusive gov’t

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said the United States is responsible for the suffering and pain of the Afghan people, calling for an inclusive government to be established in the country.

Iran’s top diplomat made the remarks in a Thursday meeting with the visiting Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani in Tehran as the two sides discussed bilateral relations and the ongoing situation in Afghanistan.

“The United States is responsible for the pain and suffering of the people of Afghanistan,” Amir-Abdollahian said, according to Press TV.

“The current situation could only lead to stability through the establishment of an inclusive government representing all Afghan groups.”

He also underlined Iran’s stance on the necessity of strengthening dialogue among regional countries.

The Qatari foreign minister said Qatar believes in the effectiveness of having a unified vision to ensure a comprehensive solution for Afghanistan.

Qatar has been acting as a mediator between different groups as the situation in Afghanistan unraveled. It hosted talks between the US and the Taliban that concluded in 2020 with a US troop withdrawal agreement.

Amir-Abdollahian also had a phone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday during which the two underlined the need for the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan with the participation of all groups.

The top diplomats stressed that the new government of Afghanistan should be one that represents all political groups in the country.

The Taliban, that took control of Kabul in mid-August amid the withdrawal of US-led foreign forces, are now poised to run Afghanistan again two decades after they were removed from power by American forces following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

US mess in Afghanistan

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the US "experiments" with setting up a “so-called democracy” in Afghanistan resulted in nothing other than chaos, and now the world has to “clear out the mess”.

He made the remarks on Thursday during the opening ceremony of the 13th Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) summit that was being hosted virtually by India.

The current chaotic situation in Afghanistan, Putin said, stems directly from “irresponsible attempts to impose alien values from the outside and the intention to build the so-called democracy”.

This was done without taking into account neither history nor the traditions that people of Afghanistan have followed, he said.

This is while “we must strictly observe the fundamental principles of international law enshrined in the UN Charter, including non-interference in the internal affairs and respect for sovereignty”.

It should also be noted that, he added, progressive development of international relations was only possible through guaranteeing the coexistence of states with different political and social systems –something that Washington likewise failed to observe concerning Afghanistan.

Referring to the United States and the Western military alliance of NATO, the Russian head of state further condemned them for abandoning Afghanistan the way they did after creating the mess.

The “authors of these experiments have [now] backed down,” leaving “the people to their own devices,” he said, pointing to Washington’s flash withdrawal from the Central Asian country that it announced it April.

“It’s still unclear how this will affect regional and global security.”

The Russian president, meanwhile, urged the international community to allow Afghans themselves to exercise their right to self-determination and decide for the ruling structure that they prefer to preside over the nation’s affairs.

Afghans “have fought for decades and deserve to exercise the right to defining [what] their state will look like on their own,” he said.