In These New Times

PressTV

5th March, 2009

The new US administration reportedly plans to invite Iran to an international conference to discuss the worsening Afghan security situation. 

“Iran will be invited to attend,” Reuters quoted an unnamed senior US official as saying on Thursday. 

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that Washington was looking to engage Tehran on Afghanistan. 

Clinton also unveiled that there had been consultations between Iran and the US ambassador on a daily basis regarding Afghanistan just after the US military toppled the Taliban in 2001. 

Following seven years of occupation and the failure of some 70,000 US and NATO-led troops to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan, Washington has called on the war-ravaged country’s neighbors to help deal with the situation. 

At the same time, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that his country is seeking ways to invite Iran to the conference on March 31. 

“Afghanistan’s neighbors must be there,” Kouchner said in a NATO meeting in Brussels. “I hope that Iran will be there.” 

Earlier, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini welcomed the idea of inviting Iran to the conference on Afghanistan hosted by Italy which holds the Group of Eight presidency. 

In a change of policy from former president George W. Bush’s administration, US President Barack Obama has chosen to oversee US policy on Iran and has pledged to untangle 30 years of enmity toward Tehran by diplomatically engaging the country.