TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran says a delegation of the Taliban has discussed efforts to bring peace and end Afghanistan's 17-year war during a rare visit to Tehran.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi says the Taliban delegation arrived on Sunday and met with Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi.

Ghasemi says they discussed "security issues aimed at driving the peace process in Afghanistan." He says the Afghan government was aware of the talks.

The talks were not the first between the Taliban and Iranian officials. Ali Shamkhani of Iran's Supreme National Security Council confirmed last week in Kabul that such talks have taken place in the past and would continue.

The Taliban have recently held talks in several regional countries amid U.S. plans to withdraw up to half the 14,000 American troops from Afghanistan.</s>TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran says a delegation of the Taliban has discussed efforts to bring peace and end Afghanistan’s 17-year war during a rare visit to Tehran.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi says the Taliban delegation arrived on Sunday and met with Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi.

Ghasemi says they discussed “security issues aimed at driving the peace process in Afghanistan.” He says the Afghan government was aware of the talks.

The talks were not the first between the Taliban and Iranian officials. Ali Shamkhani of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council confirmed last week in Kabul that such talks have taken place in the past and would continue.

The Taliban have recently held talks in several regional countries amid U.S. plans to withdraw up to half the 14,000 American troops from Afghanistan.</s>Afghan Taliban hold talks with Iranian official in Tehran

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran says a delegation of the Taliban has discussed efforts to bring peace and end Afghanistan's 17-year war during a rare visit to Tehran.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi says the Taliban delegation arrived on Sunday and met with Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi.

Ghasemi says they discussed "security issues aimed at driving the peace process in Afghanistan." He says the Afghan government was aware of the talks.

The talks were not the first between the Taliban and Iranian officials. Ali Shamkhani of Iran's Supreme National Security Council confirmed last week in Kabul that such talks have taken place in the past and would continue.

The Taliban have recently held talks in several regional countries amid U.S. plans to withdraw up to half the 14,000 American troops from Afghanistan.</s>LONDON (Reuters) - Iran said Taliban representatives from Afghanistan negotiated with Iranian officials in Tehran on Sunday, as the Islamic Republic seeks to advance peace talks in the neighbouring country to curb the influence of other Islamist groups.

The talks were held with the knowledge of Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and were intended to set parameters for negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said on Monday.

“A Taliban delegation was in Tehran yesterday. They had comprehensive negotiations with the Iranian deputy foreign minister,” Bahram Qasemi said in a news conference broadcast live on state television.

The Taliban, seeking to re-impose strict Islamic law in Afghanistan after their 2001 overthrow, say the presence of international forces there is the main obstacle to peace. Even as the peace process gathers momentum, fighting has continued with heavy casualties on both sides.

Groups Bands of Islamic State fighters have been increasingly active in Afghanistan in recent years, clashing with both government and Taliban forces and alarming neighbouring nations.

Taliban sources said this month that they had also negotiated with the U.S. officials over proposals for a six-month ceasefire in Afghanistan and a future withdrawal of foreign troops.

Also in December, Afghan forces abandoned a remote western district bordering Iran, leaving the area to the Taliban after the government failed to resupply troops stationed there.</s>When in 1996, the Taliban proclaimed the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan after taking power in Kabul, Iran became a prominent regional supporter of the opposition Northern Alliance. Iran had long feared that the primarily ethnic-Pashtun and Sunni Muslim Taliban would treat culturally Persianate as well as Shi’a Muslim minorities in Afghanistan unfairly. Things became even more tense in respect of Iran-Taliban relations when in 1998, the Taliban government executed ten Iranian diplomats at Tehran’s consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif. At the time, it looked as though war might breakout between Iran and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

In the decades that have followed, Iran’s position regarding the rights of Shi’a Muslims and culturally Persianate peoples of Afghanistan has not changed, but what has changed are the goals, mentality and political policies of the Afghan Taliban.

The Taliban of the 1990s was comprised of individuals who cut their teeth during the US backed Mujahideen war against Afghanistan’s fledgling post-Saur revolution regime. As such, the Taliban of the 1990s exhibited many extremist tendencies that were later encouraged by the presence of the mostly Arab terror group al-Qaeda under its then leader Osama bin Laden. Even prior to the fall of the first Taliban regime, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan distanced itself from bin Laden after the 9/11 terror atrocity in the United Sates.

What is less remembered is that in October of 2001, in what appeared to be a face saving gesture, the Taliban had offered to hand bin Laden over to a third party (likely Pakistan) that would then extradite him to the United States so long as Washington could provide evidence of his role in the 9/11 attacks. Washington refused this offer and instead commenced with a bombing campaign and invasion of Afghanistan while bin Laden’s actual whereabouts fell conspicuously off the radar.

While Iran’s relations with the US in 2001 were almost as bad as they are today, many in Tehran were happy to see the Taliban removed from power in neighbouring Afghanistan, even if this removal was achieved by US power. Today, the atmosphere is very different.

The current generation of Afghan Taliban leadership is markedly different that of the 1990s. Today’s Taliban has proved that it is willing to work with a variety of international partners that it once considered enemies including both Iran and Russia. Furthermore, the Taliban’s domestic policies in the upwards of 50% of Afghan territory back under its control are notably more moderate than that which existed in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

In a recent statement form Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, the group wished to convey a message that it has mended its ways when compared with that of the 1990s. Zabiullah Mujahid was quoted by Reuters as saying:

It is this mentality that has helped to mend long strained Iran-Taliban relations. According to Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi, Taliban representatives met with Iranian officials in Tehran to discuss a regional peace process against the background of China, Pakistan, Russia and Iran working ever more closely to help foster an all-parties peace process for Afghanistan.

Just as alignments of the Cold War era have evaporated into thin air and have subsequently changed inexorably, the position of the Taliban both in a regional and domestic sense has changed since the 1990s. Far from just being a public relations move, if Iran – a country whose national ideology is as different from that of the old Taliban as one can get, is happy to sit at the peace table with the Afghan based group, self-evidently everything has changed.</s>Afghan Taliban hold talks with Iranian official in Tehran

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran says a delegation of the Taliban has discussed efforts to bring peace and end Afghanistan's 17-year war during a rare visit to Tehran.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi says the Taliban delegation arrived on Sunday and met with Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi.

Ghasemi says they discussed "security issues aimed at driving the peace process in Afghanistan." He says the Afghan government was aware of the talks.

The talks were not the first between the Taliban and Iranian officials. Ali Shamkhani of Iran's Supreme National Security Council confirmed last week in Kabul that such talks have taken place in the past and would continue.

The Taliban have recently held talks in several regional countries amid U.S. plans to withdraw up to half the 14,000 American troops from Afghanistan.</s>AT-KABUL: Iran—a state that has been accused of supporting the Taliban group, said that the Taliban representatives from Afghanistan negotiated with Iranian officials in Tehran on Sunday.

The talks were held with the knowledge of Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and were intended to set parameters for negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said on Monday.

“A Taliban delegation was in Tehran yesterday (Sunday). They had comprehensive negotiations with the Iranian deputy foreign minister,” Bahram Qasemi said in a news conference broadcast live on state television.

Taliban landed in Tehran just days after its country’s top security leadership Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council visited Kabul, where he met with Afghan officials, and said they held talks with the Taliban to bring peace in Afghanistan.

Moreover, at least two weeks ago, the US and Taliban as well as some regional countries representatives gathered in Abdu Dhabi to discuss a political settlement to end the long-standing conflict in Afghanistan. US said it would speed up peace talks with the Taliban group in a bid to convince them join the intra-Afghan dialogue. But, the Taliban group time and again dismissed meeting Afghan peace team that irked Kabul administration.

During their meeting in United Arabia Emirates, the Taliban also held meetings with officials from the UAE, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, but the militants refused to meet a delegation from Afghanistan.</s>Iran says a Taliban delegation held talks with Iranian officials in Tehran on Sunday.

Speaking at a televised press conference on Monday, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said that the talks were held with the knowledge of the Afghan government.

“A Taliban delegation was in Tehran yesterday. They had comprehensive negotiations with the Iranian deputy foreign minister,” Qasemi said.

According to the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, the main purpose of the talks was finding solutions to help facilitate talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

This comes after Taliban representatives met this month with the U.S. Special Envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation in Abu Dhabi where the two sides discussed the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

The armed group, meanwhile, has not made a comment about its visit to Tehran, the capital of Iran.</s>KABUL/PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - The Taliban have rejected Kabul’s offer of talks next month in Saudi Arabia where the militants, fighting to restore strict Islamic law in Afghanistan, will meet U.S. officials to further peace efforts, a Taliban leader said on Sunday.

FILE PHOTO: Taliban walk as they celebrate ceasefire in Ghanikhel district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan June 16, 2018. REUTERS/Parwiz

Representatives from the Taliban, the United States and regional countries met this month in the United Arab Emirates for talks to end the 17-year war in Afghanistan.

But the Taliban have refused to hold formal talks with the Western-backed Afghan government.

“We will meet the U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia in January next year and we will start our talks that remained incomplete in Abu Dhabi,” a member of the Taliban’s decision-making Leadership Council told Reuters. “However, we have made it clear to all the stakeholders that we will not talk to the Afghan government.”

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also said the leaders of the group would not talk to the Afghan government.

The militants have insisted on first reaching an agreement with the United States, which the group sees as the main force in Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban government in 2001.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict have intensified after Taliban representatives started meeting U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad this year. Officials from the warring sides have met at least three times to discuss the withdrawal of international forces and a ceasefire in 2019.

But the United States has insisted that any final settlement must be led by the Afghans.

According to data from the NATO-led Resolute Support mission published in November, the government of President Ashraf Ghani has control or influence over 65 percent of the population but only 55.5 percent of Afghanistan’s 407 districts, less than at any time since 2001. The Taliban say they control 70 percent of the country.

A close aide to Ghani said the government would keep trying to establish a direct line of diplomatic communication with the Taliban.

“Talks should be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned,” the aide said on condition of anonymity. “It is important that the Taliban acknowledge this fact.”

U.S. President Donald Trump has announced a pullout of American troops from Syria, a decision that prompted the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis, and there have been reports that he is considering a partial pullout from Afghanistan.</s>Afghan Taliban hold talks with Iranian official in Tehran

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran says a delegation of the Taliban has discussed efforts to bring peace and end Afghanistan's 17-year war during a rare visit to Tehran.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi says the Taliban delegation arrived on Sunday and met with Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi.

Ghasemi says they discussed "security issues aimed at driving the peace process in Afghanistan." He says the Afghan government was aware of the talks.

The talks were not the first between the Taliban and Iranian officials. Ali Shamkhani of Iran's Supreme National Security Council confirmed last week in Kabul that such talks have taken place in the past and would continue.

The Taliban have recently held talks in several regional countries amid U.S. plans to withdraw up to half the 14,000 American troops from Afghanistan.
The Taliban reject peace talks with the Afghan government.