Report: Afghanistan’s Taliban Sends Delegation To Iran

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A delegation from Afghanistan’s Taliban has arrived in Iran to discuss the situation of Afghan migrants and issues in the Islamic world, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported Tuesday.

The report said the delegation arrived in Iran on Monday and was headed by Muhammad Tayyab Agha, who is in charge of the Taliban’s political bureau in Qatar. It says the delegation met Iranian security officials and that similar delegations have visited Iran twice in the past.

It was not immediately clear why Iranian officials would hold talks with the Taliban.

The Taliban espouse a radical version of Sunni Islam that considers Shiites apostates, and when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s they nearly went to war with Shiite-majority Iran.

Iran supported the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that drove the Taliban from power, but Tehran is opposed to the continued presence of U.S. and NATO forces in its eastern neighbor.