Is Iran moving towards accepting the Taliban?

On Sunday, a high-level delegation of the Taliban reached the Iranian capital Tehran to discuss economic ties with Iran and the issue of Afghan refugees.

This was the top Taliban delegation to reach Tehran since the Taliban took over Kabul in August last year. Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mottaqi led this delegation of the Islamic organization.

In this tour, Taliban leaders also met with Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amir Abdullahiyan, as well as several anti-Taliban Afghan leaders. A Taliban spokesman said Mottaqi's meeting with Iranian leaders was "very positive and constructive".

Let us tell you that since coming to power, no country has recognized the Taliban so far. But Iran is one of the few countries that are actively negotiating and doing business with this organization.

According to Iran, it is not currently planning to recognize the Taliban's interim government. But Mottaqi's visit to Tehran is indicating something else.

Taliban 'not in a position to recognize'

Iran has maintained its stance for the past several months that it is not ready to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan.

On 10 January, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh once again clarified Iran's position. He said that Iran was not in a position to recognize the interim government of the Islamic organization.

Bahadur Aminian, the Iranian ambassador stationed in Kabul, also made a similar statement on January 3 during an interview with Afghanistan's private TV channel Tolo News. He said that if the Taliban wanted to gain recognition from Iran, it would have to form an inclusive government in which different tribes were represented.

Not only this, before Mottaqi visits Iran, an Iranian news website has claimed that the Iranian government is preparing to hand over the Afghan embassy to the Taliban.

However, Iran's foreign ministry denied the news, saying it would go against the 1961 Vienna Convention.

What happened after the visit to Mottaqi?

In an interview with Tolo News, Iranian Ambassador Aminian once again said that after the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan, Iran will not only recognize that government but will also request other countries to take this step.

He said that the formation of an inclusive government can be done according to the elections or according to the Afghan tradition. It was an interesting remark from a representative of a country whose supreme leader Ali Khamenei mocked the royal governments of Arab countries for not holding elections last year.

Khamenei said in June 2021, "Even in the middle of the 21st century, there are some countries that are run by a tribe. There the smell of elections has not reached. The people living there have a ballot box and fruit box." don't know the difference between

Therefore, it appears that the Afghan people's attitude towards recognizing a Taliban-led government is not a necessity for Iran if this government includes people from all tribes.

However, the Jamhoori-y-Islami, a conservative newspaper considered relatively moderate, reported on 11 January that the Taliban's refusal to hold the election meant that "Iran is the Taliban because of the conditions set by its top leaders." not in a position to recognize it."

But another step taken by Iran suggests that Iran is moving towards recognizing the Taliban.

Iran's Foreign Ministry has stated after the meeting of Amir Abdullahiyan and Mottaki.

The statement referred to Mottaki as "the acting leader of the Afghanistan Foreign Ministry". It is a relatively extra formal address for a man whom Iran's state news agency Irna called the "Taliban Foreign Minister" a day earlier.

How will it be done?

Iran, Pakistan, and Russia did not end their ties with Afghanistan after the Taliban took over Kabul. Because Iran needs Afghanistan. In the last Iranian year (March 2020 - 21), Iran has exported goods worth the US $ 2.3 billion to Afghanistan. And thus Afghanistan is included in the five largest importing countries of Iran.

Not only this, the city of Herat has been a source of cash for Iran during the US sanctions. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that Iran has publicly called for international pressure on the US to re-release frozen funds after the Taliban regime was established in Kabul.

According to the news agency Reuters, the Afghan central bank has assets worth about $ 10 billion abroad. Jawan, a radical newspaper affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, on January 11 praised Iran's influential policy on relations with Afghanistan.

The newspaper has said that Mottaqi's visit has made it clear that this policy is working. Iran has been involved in ongoing efforts to handle the situation in Afghanistan since the Taliban's capture of Kabul. The Taliban have also organized meetings between different Afghan groups on several occasions.