Iran-trained militias could become a threat to Afghanistan, Mahmoud Saikal, Afghanistan’s former ambassador to the United Nations, said on Thursday.
Speaking at a roundtable discussion hosted by Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies, Saikal said that Afghanistan was under pressure from both US and Iran to take stance in their own interest.
“There are also claims that one party to tension is asking Afghanistan to take actions,” Saikal said.
He said that US-Iran tensions could delay the Afghan peace process.
Saikal, however, said that US and Iran have shared interests and stances in Afghanistan, including on counterterrorism and Taliban violence.
According to Saikal, it was Taliban violence that dragged US to Afghanistan. “Therefore, it is important that instead of using Taliban as a tool, there should be an agreement among the three countries on ending Taliban violence in Afghanistan.”
“If the US has a channel for talks with Iran on the Afghan peace, it is better to strengthen, and if it doesn’t, it is better to create it,” Saikal said.
Tensions between the US and Iran have reached the highest level in decades after top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad on Jan. 3, prompting Iran to retaliate with a missile attack against a US base in Iraq days later.
The Afghan government opted for a neutral position and said that it would not allow its soil to be used against another country.
Former Head of Threat Assessment, National Security Council of Afghanistan, Aryan Sharifi, said that it was likely that Iran would use the Fatemiyoun Division, Afghan fighters in the Syrian civil war, in Afghanistan war as well.
