At the beginning of his statement, Gholam Hossein Dehghani hailed the efforts by the President of the United Nations General Assembly Sam Kahamba Kutesa to hold the debate on the situation in Afghanistan and also expressed gratitude to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan and head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Mr. Nicholas Haysom for his report.
Dehghani also offered his condolences to the people and Government of Afghanistan for the losses inflicted by terrorist attacks by the Taliban against the people of Afghanistan, including the one against the Parliament on Monday.
In his message, he underlined that the Islamic Republic of Iran always supported peace, stability, security and socio-economic development in Afghanistan and considered the security in Afghanistan tantamount to security in its own borders.
"Iran's policy of steadfast support for the Afghan government has not and will not change," Dehghani stressed, adding that, we are confident that the National Unity Government is best positioned to face major challenges to peace and development in Afghanistan and we spare no efforts to lend support for it in this respect.
He expressed concern over the report of the Secretary-General on Afghanistan, saying that, the report is unfortunately, once again, indicative of the deterioration of security situation in the country. The report is suggestive of 6 and 45 percent increase in armed attacks and violence compared to the same periods in 2014 and 2013. These figures are and should be a matter of grave concern to all of us in the region and beyond. Insecurity, instability and poverty continue to provide fertile grounds for the continued presence of such violent extremist groups as Taliban and Al Qaida and the recent emergence of ISIL and other foreign terrorist fighters in Afghanistan, as referred to by the Secretary General in his latest report.
"Unfortunately, the report also indicates that the number of terrorist activities has increased; we regard the activities by all violent extremists in Afghanistan to be a security threat to Iran and to the whole region; Iran has always condemned all violent attacks committed by terrorist groups as well as any cooperation with them, since we believe this will be counterproductive to establishing peace in Afghanistan," Dehghani added.
On bilateral cooperation, Dehghani reiterated, Iran hosted President Ghani on 19 and 20 April, for his first official visit and meetings with Iran's Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, during which the two countries pledged greater cooperation in the areas of security information sharing, counter-narcotics, the sharing of water resources and refugees. The two presidents also underlined their determination to cooperate in fighting extremism and terrorism in the entire region through the elimination of this menace.
In the view of the Iranian Government, trade and transit are two main fields for expansion of Tehran-Kabul relations. The railroad project between Harat and the city of khaf in Iran and Iran’s readiness to make available its port facilities in Chabahar to Afghanistan are two major and ongoing projects in this field. As Afghanistan is a land locked country, it is agreed that these two projects are very important. We need to move forward with these activities in the framework of the tripartite agreement between India, Afghanistan and Iran as soon as possible.
On the counter-narcotics efforts, Iranian diplomat highlighted that Iran is particularly concerned about the reports indicating the increase in the opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan during the recent years. It is a real warning sign for the region and beyond. This threat should be addressed by the international community very seriously.
"In this regard, we welcome the regional initiatives taken by countries of the region, including China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and Iran, to combat the production and transfer of the narcotics; at the same time, strong support and commitment of the international donors, Afghan authorities and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is essential to deter the menace of drug cultivation and drug trafficking," Iran's ambassador said.
He noted that illicit drug is not only a major social and public health challenge but also, and more importantly, a main source of income for extremist and terrorist groups. Thus, the international community should specially support the Triangular Initiative of cooperation on countering narcotics among Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. This is a useful initiative to benefit Afghanistan as well as transit and destination countries.
On the uncontrolled entry of Afghan refugees into the country, Mr. Dehghani wrote in his message that Afghan refugees continue to live in Iran; voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees and undocumented Afghans needs to be supported through meeting the reasonable needs of repatriated and repatriating refugees in Afghanistan in order to help them to integrate permanently in their home country; this underscores the necessity for mobilizing more international support to ensure the success of repatriation.
"We support UNAMA as well as UN agencies in their efforts to providing development and reconstruction assistance to Afghanistan through a robust regional engagement," Gholam Hossein Dehghani stressed, adding that UNAMA should be further strengthened due to its unique role and multi-faceted functions vis-à-vis the important political as well as socio-economic challenges facing Afghanistan.
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