EurasiaNet: Mr. Khalilzad, you have said that the US government has provided Iran with detailed information on the al Qaeda members it thinks have been given safe passage through Iran. The Iranian Foreign Ministry said recently that the information they received was old and inadequate. What can public opinion conclude from these disputes?
That is the face represented by student leaders like Ali Afshari, who recently created a sensation in Iran by telling reporters he had been forced by hard-line interrogators to confess he plotted to overthrow the state.
During his recent visit to Tehran, interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai received an important boost from Iranian leaders, who pledged to take measures to cut off assistance to unruly warlords inside Afghanistan.
The summonses come in the form of phone calls from Iran's morality police, who are usually responsible for enforcing official bans against unrelated men and women walking together in public.
The anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan and its aftermath pose a major test for Islamic Iran's foreign policy makers. The geopolitical contest that surrounds Afghan reconstruction is forcing Islamic Iran to clarify its national interests. That, in turn, is helping to fuel competition between conservative and reformist forces in Iran.
Armenia and Iran are seeking to boost bilateral relations. Both countries clearly hope that closer cooperation can be used as leverage to influence broader political and economic issues in the Caucasus. However, relations are developing slowly, due in large part to the fact that close Armenian-Iranian ties run counter to the interests of other countries in the region.
Azerbaijani President Heidar Aliyev's long-awaited visit to Iran, which was supposed to take place February 18-20, has been postponed indefinitely, due in part to his uncertain health. Aliyev has yet to return to Azerbaijan from the United States, where he is being treated for an undisclosed illness. Presidential aides say it is too soon to determine when the Iran visit will be rescheduled.
In a move hailed as a significant show of support for Afghanistan's interim government, Iran has curbed renegade Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's activities. At the same time, conservative Islamic elements in Iran are engaged on an on-going effort to enhance Tehran's influence over Afghanistan's reconstruction.
Afghanistan's interim government is eager to help reduce tensions between two key strategic partners - the United States and Iran. A better relationship between Washington and Tehran is seen as a key to Afghanistan's own stabilization hopes, Afghan officials say.
Despite a hero's reception at US President George W. Bush's State of the Union address, interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai finished his most recent trip to the United States without key assurances on international peacekeeping in his tattered nation.
