Skip to main content

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan - Iran warns West against talks with Taliban

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan - Iran warns West against talks with Taliban
Iran warns West against talks with Taliban

TEHRAN: Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki warned the West on Sunday not to push for talks with the Taliban militia, which had stormy relations with Tehran when it ruled Afghanistan up to 2001.

“Today, the whole world knows about the strategic failure of foreign forces in Afghanistan and we advise them not to try a new failure,” the foreign minister told a news conference.

“We advise them to think about the consequences of the talks (with the Taliban) which are taking place in the region and in Europe and avoid being bitten in the same spot twice,” Mottaki said, citing a Persian proverb.

Last month, Afghan government representatives met Taliban leaders in the Saudi holy city of Makkah for talks on ending the insurgency that has plagued Afghanistan ever since the Taliban was ousted from power in a US-led invasion seven years ago, the Saudi-owned daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported.

The Afghan government denied the report but President Hamid Karzai has long called for talks with the Taliban on condition that they accept his government’s constitution and are not involved with Al Qaeda. Several western countries have expressed support for negotiations with the militia.

“The West should not think that they can confine extremism to Afghanistan, Pakistan and central Asia,” Mottaki said, warning that extremism would one day also reach Europe and the West. afp

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Israeli school segregated Ethiopian students » Ethiopian Review

Israeli school segregated Ethiopian students » Ethiopian Review : "The placement of four Ethiopian girls in a separate class from their peers at a Petah Tikva grade school has sparked accusations of segregation on Tuesday morning following a report in Yediot Aharonot. According to ‘Hamerhav’ principal, Rabbi Yeshiyahu Granvich, complete integration of the girls was impossible. The reason being, said municipal workers, was that the students were not observant enough, nor did their families belong to the national-religious movement that the school was founded upon. Among the differences in the daily school life of the girls, a single teacher was responsible to teach them all of their subjects. Worse yet, the four were allotted separate recess hours and were driven to and from school separately. Such action has been labeled by observers as “apartheid.”"

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 01/13/2009 | Poll: American public backs Israel firmly in war with Hamas

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 01/13/2009 | Poll: American public backs Israel firmly in war with Hamas : "WASHINGTON — As Palestinian casualties mount in the Gaza Strip, the American people are squarely behind Israel and overwhelmingly think that using force against Hamas is appropriate, according to a new McClatchy/Ipsos poll. Forty-four percent of Americans support Israel's use of force, while only 18 percent considered Hamas' use of force appropriate. Fifty-seven percent think that Hamas is using excessive force, while only 36 percent said Israel was. Nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the violence — soldiers and civilians — and at least nine Israeli soldiers and four civilians have died. When it comes to who's to blame for the latest Middle East crisis, Americans blame Hamas hands down: Forty-four percent said Hamas, 14 percent said Israel and 29 percent said they weren't sure. Nine percent said both, and 4 percent said neither."