A top official in the Afghan interim administration confirms that Iranian President Mohammed Khatami is expected to arrive in Kabul for talks prior to the convocation of the Loya Jirga, the grand tribal council that aims to establish Afghanistan's future course.
Following President Heidar Aliyev's recent visit to Tehran, Azerbaijani leaders say they are optimistic about the future of Azerbaijani-Iranian relations and Caspian Basin energy development prospects. Yet, US officials remain unconvinced that Iran is committed to resolving territorial disputes that have clouded the region's economic and political climate.
Meanwhile, coalition military action in Afghanistan continues. US warplanes attacked a group of people who appeared to be preparing a mortar position near the Pakistani border on May 22, the Associated Press reported. And in a sign that combat operations in Afghanistan are not expected to end soon, US General Tommy R.
Iran isolated itself from US allies in Central Asia at a summit in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan on April 23 when it pressed for a 20 percent share in Caspian natural resources. The next day, Iranian President Mohammed Khatami began working to cement ties to these allies, starting a Central Asian tour in Kazakhstan. He kicked off his tour with provocative words about the United States.
Instability remains the main feature of Afghanistan's political life. The expected return of former king Mohammad Zahir Shah on April 17 or 18 could add an additional element of insecurity. The former king, who has lived in exile since 1973, has already postponed his return once because of security concerns.
EurasiaNet: A big topic these days is the eradication of poppies. Has the interim government been successful in the attempt to eradicate poppies? Abdullah: We have been very successful in Helmand [Province], and just we started in Jalalabad also.
Zarafshan is a prominent member of Iran's legal community who, for the past several years, has irked the country's hard-liners by representing the families of several nationalists and writers assassinated in a series of political murders three and a half years ago.
Hamid Karzai's trip to Bamiyan on April 11 aimed in part to demonstrate that the interim government can project its authority beyond the capital Kabul. The trip also contained a highly symbolic component, as Karzai announced that at least one of the giant statues of Buddha destroyed by the Taliban in 2000 would be rebuilt.
A recent meeting between Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi and Russian President Vladimir Putin reinforced growing Russian-Iranian economic cooperation. The meeting, coming just months after US President George W.
Interior Minister Yunus Qanooni, a veteran of the Northern Alliance, has spoken for Afghanistan's interim administration since the April 3 arrests of alleged coup plotters around Afghanistan. In this conversation with EurasiaNet contributor Camelia Enkhetabi-Fard, Qanooni explains why the arrests cast a wide net and considers the financial threats to his country's stability.
