Iran insists on ‘inclusive’ government in Afghanistan

Aljazeera-By Maziar Motamedi-Sept 9th 2021

Tehran, Iran – Iran has emphasized its calls for the formation of an “inclusive” government in neighboring Afghanistan, shortly after the Taliban formed what it said was an interim cabinet.

On Wednesday, a day after the Taliban announced the formation of the new Afghan government, which was dominated by its old guard and included no representation for women or members of the Shia community, the foreign ministers of Afghanistan’s neighboring countries – including Iran, China, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan – held a virtual meeting.

According to a foreign ministry statement on Thursday, Iranian top diplomat Hossein Amirabdollahian told his peers Iran was following up on the formation of “an inclusive government with the participation of all people” and hoped the Taliban would abide by its promises for such an administration.

“Experience has shown that a non-inclusive government does nothing to help stability, peace, and progress in Afghanistan, so our expectation from the foreign ministers is to announce the necessity for the formation of an inclusive government with a unified voice,” he said.