EurasiaNet: I'm curious about the case of the arrested people. Can you explain to us exactly what happened in Kabul the other day? Qanooni: The Security Directorate of the Interior ministry has been in charge of the case from the beginning up to now.
Iranian-Russian relations are approaching a reckoning point. In recent months, Moscow has striven to remain on good terms with both the United States and Iran, two countries whose own bilateral relations have been marked by growing hostility.
Tension is rising in US-Iranian relations that may have an overall impact on the anti-terrorism campaign. Some US officials are specifically worried about the destabilizing effect that Iran may have on the Afghan peace process.
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.
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.
