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AT Monitoring Desk-KABUL: An Iranian MP on Sunday confirmed that a delegation from the Afghan Taliban has visited Iran last month.
A member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Esmail Kowsari, said the delegation, which visited Tehran, belongs to a branch of the Taliban who believe on settling issues through ‘negotiations’.
Earlier, Marzieh Afkham, Iran’s External Affairs Ministry’s spokeswoman said that the ministry is not informed about the visit of the delegation.
“We have no information on the issue,” Afkham said, adding the sources which have disseminated the information should be found.
Kowsari said he cannot unveil the details of Iran’s negotiations with the Taliban delegation headed by Tayyab Agha, who is in charge of the Taliban’s political bureau in Qatar, Iran’s YJC news agency reported.
“They expressed readiness for negotiations and travelled to Tehran for talks,” said Kowsari.
They were not from the “hardliner” Taliban, said the Iranian MP underlining that Iran will never accept extremist Taliban members.
“Iran welcomes those who want to resolve the issues via dialogue and negotiate with them to solve the regional problems,” Kowsari added.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that Taliban’s delegation travelled to Iran in mid-May to hold talks with the Islamic Republic security officials.
Taliban’s delegation and the Iranian security officials discussed regional issues, in particular the recent developments in the Islamic world, as well as the situation of Afghan migrants, according to the report.
Similar Taliban delegations visited Iran twice in the past to hold talks with Iran’s security officials and to participate in an international conference.
Afghanistan’s High Peace Council has not commented about the report so far.
