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Iran pledges Afghan help in new gesture to U.S.
Wed Apr 1, 2009 2:41am EDT
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By Sue Pleming and Mark John
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Iran offered help in combating the Afghan drugs trade on Tuesday, in a gesture to a U.S. call for regional support in Afghanistan that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described as promising.
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh told an international meeting on Afghanistan in The Hague that Tehran was ready to help both in fighting the country's huge opium trade and in reconstruction of the impoverished state.
Clinton, in The Hague to seek broad support for a revamped strategy unveiled by President Barack Obama to tackle Islamist militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan, welcomed the gesture by Tehran that will be closely watched for any follow-up.
"I did think that the Iranian intervention this morning was promising," she told reporters of Akhoundzadeh's speech.
While Clinton did not hold discussions with the Iranian delegation, she said U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke had what she called brief and cordial contacts with Akhoundzadeh on the meeting sidelines.
"It did not focus on anything substantive. It was cordial; it was unplanned and they agreed to stay in touch."
The United States gave a letter to Tehran asking for "humanitarian help" for three Americans who were unable to return to the United States, Clinton said.
Iran however played down the encounter, saying no meeting had taken place.
Nearly eight years after the U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, more than 70,000 U.S. and NATO troops are still there battling a growing insurgency, which is also spreading its influence in Pakistan.
In one of several shifts of emphasis by Obama from the former Bush administration's Afghan policy, Clinton proposed a possible truce with non-violent Taliban.
"They should be offered an honorable form of reconciliation and reintegration into a peaceful society, if they are willing to abandon violence, break with al Qaeda, and support the constitution," Clinton said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai insisted his government should lead conciliation efforts. But he welcomed Obama's new stress on a regional approach and what he called his "fresh, strong and judicious leadership" of international efforts in Afghanistan.
HELP FROM NEIGHBORS
Clinton had played down any major overtures with Iran at the meeting in The Hague and said beforehand she had no plans for a separate meeting with its deputy foreign minister.
But the joint presence of the U.S. and Iranian delegations was an easing of U.S. policy which has long stuck to a stand-off over Tehran's nuclear program. Continued...
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