MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th November, 2022) Iran is ready to host a new meeting of foreign ministers of Afghanistan's neighbor countries as well we Russia to discuss improving the situation in the Central Asian country, the Iranian President's Special Representative for Afghanistan, Hassan Kazemi Qumi, said on Wednesday.
"We support the fourth meeting among the countries neighboring Afghanistan that has taken place in Tashkent, and we support regional consultations. Nonetheless, Iran is ready to host an additional meeting of foreign ministers in the Afghanistan plus Russia format in Tehran as soon as possible," Qumi said at a meeting of the Moscow format summit on Afghanistan.
The Iranian official also noted that countries of the region should cooperate with the Afghan authorities more actively in seeking to resolve economic, political and other issues in the country by holding regular consultations with Kabul.
The Tashkent Conference on Afghanistan took place in late July, with over 100 delegations from nearly 30 countries participating in the meeting including China, Russia and the United States.
The Moscow format was created in 2017 as a consultation mechanism of the special representatives of Russia, Afghanistan, China, Pakistan, Iran, India, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Russia traditionally invites the US to meetings of the Moscow format, however Washington has not always accepted the invitation to participate.
