Two unlikely partners in South Asia, Taliban supporter Iran and U.S.-allied India, have reportedly expressed a willingness to enhance cooperation against jihadist organizations and drug traffickers in Afghanistan, named by the Pentagon as the top opium and terrorism-producing region in the world.
Both countries intend to try to “restore peace and stability to the war-wracked country,” reports the Associated Press (AP).
“We both will work for restoring peace, stability, prosperity and a pluralistic system in Afghanistan,” declared Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi after meeting with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani in New Delhi on the final day of his three-day visit.
Rouhani said the Islamic Republic and India “are prepared for joint ventures in gas and petroleum sectors,” noting that he sought New Delhi’s investment in those sectors as well as in the industrial and mining areas.
Mineral resources in Afghanistan are estimated to be a lucrative venture valued by the U.S. government at about $1 trillion.
Afghanistan must be “a vivacious and secure country,” proclaimed Rouhani, adding that Iran and India would also cooperate in dealing with the situations in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.
Iran has already established a foothold in those countries. While U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has been quite vocal about working with India in Afghanistan and other areas, it has blasted Tehran’s malign activities in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
AP reports:
Rouhani’s visit to India came at a time when President Donald Trump has threatened to scuttle an international deal reached with Iran in 2015 over its nuclear program that ended economic sanctions imposed on the country.
The uncertainty puts India in a difficult position with its growing ties with the United States.
Rouhani referred to Trump’s threat on the nuclear deal, and said that “politics without adhering to one’s commitment and promises cannot resolve the conflicts and problems of the current world.”
Nevertheless, analysts have indicated there may be room for cooperation with Iran on combating the flow of opium and its heroin derivative out of Afghanistan.
Despite the more than $8.5 billion in American taxpayer dollars devoted to counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan, that country remains the top supplier of opium and heroin in the world, producing a historic amount last year that the U.S. State Department recently estimated to generate about 65 percent in terrorist funding for the Taliban.
“About 40 percent of [the Afghan opium and heroin] does go out through Pakistan, about 30 percent through Iran, about 30 percent through the north,” U.S. Gen. John Nicholson, the top commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, declared in November 2017.
India and Iran’s desire to promote stability in Afghanistan comes soon after the Taliban, the most prominent terrorist group in the country, issued a letter urging peace talks with the American-backed Kabul government as the U.S. military escalates its air campaign not only against the group itself, but its drug operation.
While India and Iran appear to have opposing views about the Taliban, they agree on the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), which threatens both nations as it steps up its presence and operations in South Asia, according to the United Nations.
According to the American military, Iran lends support to the Taliban. The Islamic Republic justifies the aid as a means to combat ISIS, a claim that the Pentagon refutes.
The United States, namely President Trump, has praised India for the billions in aid it has provided Afghanistan throughout the ongoing war, which started in October 2011.
U.S., Afghan, and Indian officials have accused Pakistan of harboring terrorist groups that threaten the region, such as the Taliban and its Haqqani Network allies.