Tehran: Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad is to head to Afghanistan tomorrow, his first trip to
Tehran's eastern neighbour since the re-election last August
of his counterpart Hamid Karzai.
"The President is going on Wednesday" to Afghanistan,
foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters
at his weekly press conference.
On Sunday, an Iranian news agency, Mehr, reported that
Ahmadinejad was to make a one-day trip to Kabul yesterday to
hold talks with Karzai on the challenges facing war-torn
Afghanistan.
But an official at Ahmadinejad's office later denied
the timing. Ahmadinejad and several Iranian officials have
repeatedly called for the withdrawal of US-led forces from
Afghanistan, saying their presence was stoking the Taliban
insurgency.
But despite their rivalry, Washington and Tehran are
both sworn enemies of the extremist Sunni Muslim militia which
ruled in Kabul from 1996, before being overthrown in the 2001
US-led invasion.
The United States has made a number of efforts to
involve all of Afghanistan's neighbours, including Iran, in
restoring stability to the country.
But they have been complicated by the lack of
diplomatic relations between Tehran and Washington, and the
standoff over Iran's controversial nuclear programme.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, March 09, 2010, 15:51