Tehran, March 08: Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has called on the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to do its utmost to restore peace and stability in Afghanistan.
“The Organization of the Islamic Conference should do its utmost in order to restore the rightful demands of Afghan citizens and improve their living standards,” Salehi said in a meeting with OIC’s permanent envoy to Afghanistan Monir al-Zaman, ISNA reported on Monday.
He expressed dissatisfaction with the presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan, saying the US-led invasion of the country has yielded no positive results for the Afghan people.
The top diplomat highlighted the role of the OIC in restoring peace to the war-torn country and said Iran fully supported OIC’s mission in Afghanistan.
The OIC official, for his part, praised Iran’s constructive role in restoring peace to Afghanistan and its hosting of Afghan refugees over the past thirty years.
Zaman also called for a closer partnership between Iran, the OIC and other regional countries in reestablishing peace to Afghanistan.
Ten years after the invasion of Afghanistan by US-led forces, The war-ravaged country is still grappling with insecurity and poverty.
Although NATO and the United States have close to 150,000 troops in Afghanistan, insecurity is persistently growing in the country.
More than 2,000 civilians were killed in violence across Afghanistan last year, making it the deadliest year for civilians since the US-led invasion in 2001.
Iran, an immediate neighbor of Afghanistan, has called for a regional solution to the Afghan crisis and blamed growing insecurity and drug trafficking on foreign military presence in the war-ravaged country.
——–Agencies