During President Ghani’s recent visit to Tehran, Afghan and Iranian presidents stressed on their will for starting a new chapter in relations between the two countries and stepping up cooperation to deal with challenges common for both countries. The two leaders agreed on enhanced efforts by the two countries to tackle the compounding security threats posed by terrorism as well as drug production and trafficking. The two countries have also signed agreements of cooperation in other areas such as refugees and economic ties between the two countries.
The National Unity Government’s efforts to improve relations with neighboring Iran is coming as a follow-up to former president Hamid Karzai’s visit to Tehran in 2013. During his visit to Tehran, former president Hamid Karzai and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani agreed to start negotiations for signing a bilateral cooperation agreement between Iran and Afghanistan. Karzai’s attempts to reach an agreement of bilateral cooperation with Iran, while he was refusing to sign the security agreement with the United States, raised eyebrows on his misplaced diplomatic focus which was trying to develop relations with regional powers in expense of improving relations with the United States.
However, this time President Ghani’s visit to Tehran did not meet any such skepticisms, rather was seen by many as late as he visited a number of regional countries at the beginning of his takeover from Karzai. After coming to power, President Ghani quickly managed to sign the bilateral security agreement with the United States, preempting any disapproval from internal and external players and preventing further delay and possible damage to the Afghanistan-US security pact. In the meantime, both Karzai administration and the National Unity Government made concrete efforts to convince regional countries such as Iran and Russia that the security deal with the US would not be a threat to anyone.
In recent months, The relations between the new government in Afghanistan and Iran was under spotlight as the Afghan president made efforts to boost relations with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan who are believed to have influence over the Taliban. To this point, the move should not have been worrying for Tehran. Ashraf Ghani’s move to announce his support to Saudi’s stance on the Yemeni conflict was definitely something unexpected for the Iranians. In recent months, there were contemplations over a shift of foreign policy in Kabul towards Saudi Arabia as Afghanistan started fresh efforts to kick start peace negotiations with the Taliban. President Ghani’s visit to Tehran seemingly helped resolving mounting distrusts from Iran to the new government in Kabul. Despite the stance on Yemen, the new government recognizes it very well that it needs to boost relations with neighboring Iran.
Despite all the ups and downs in relations, Afghanistan is well aware of its need to handle the delicate relations with powerful neighbors including Iran. With the US military presence in decline, Afghanistan is rebalancing itself to manage between direct security and economic involvement of not only Tehran and Washington but also other regional powers such as China and Russia in the country after conclusion of the NATO Afghan mission. In the post-NATO era, the Afghan government needs to maintain rapport and a friendly relation with Iran. Iran has been one of the main supporters of Afghanistan in the last fourteen years. The Afghan government’s attempt to establish friendly ties with Iran is quite imperative for Afghanistan’s interests.
Iran can play a role in the peace process in Afghanistan. Iran has announced its support to the Afghan peace process through regional cooperation. Regional cooperation and partnership with regional countries is a key foreign policy issue for Afghanistan as the US-led NATO forces are completing withdraw in the years to come. Iran is one of the neighboring countries that have had warm relations with Afghanistan during past decade and Tehran has provided Afghanistan with millions of aid assistance in development projects and reconstruction. Iran had close ties with Afghanistan during presidency of former Iranian president Mahmood Ahmadinejad despite Iran’s deep skepticisms to US military presence in Afghanistan.
The need for cooperation
Iran and Afghanistan has many issues between the two countries which require increased cooperation between Kabul and Tehran to resolve them. Among them, the issue of refugees is of high urgency and importance for both countries. Afghanistan is still facing challenges regarding accommodating hundreds of thousands of refugees returning from Iran, Pakistan and elsewhere. This is while Pakistan and Iran have time and again tried to deport thousands of refugees by force, causing serious humanitarian situation inside for the government of Afghanistan. Migration and presence of hundreds of thousands of Afghans in Iran has remained a thorny issue in Afghanistan-Iran relations. Afghanistan is closely watching what the new government does with Afghan migrants after they were warned of being deported forcedly. In response to calls from the government of Afghanistan and the United Nations, Iran has regulated stay of Afghan refugees in the country which allows the government of Afghanistan to gradually accept and accommodate the returning refugees.
Other common challenges for both Afghanistan and Iran are the long-lasting insurgency in Afghanistan and rise of new form of extremism in the region. The two countries need direct cooperation and share of intelligence to effectively tackle insecurity particularly in border areas. During his visit to Tehran, President Ghani and Iranian president Hassan Rouhani agreed to step up efforts by two countries to deal with the emerging threats from the Islamic State group in Afghanistan. The production and trafficking of narcotics is of serious importance for Iran as the country is a main target country for drug trafficking. Without joint efforts, Afghanistan and Iran cannot deal with these menaces effectively.
On the other hand, Afghanistan has a broad trade and economic relation with Iran. In an attempt to boost foreign trade, Afghanistan needs to expand trade relations with the neighboring country. Iran’s proximity to Afghanistan gives it grate advantages for having enhanced economic and trade relations. To boost trade and economic ties, Afghanistan and Iran need to build on previous reconstruction projects to expand railway and roads connectivity between the two countries and beyond.