Kazemi Qomi made the remarks at the first meeting of a regional contact committee working group entitled “Afghanistan’s Regional Cooperation Initiative” held in Kabul on Monday.
Referring to the common interest and good neighborliness between Iran and Afghanistan over the past years, he said that neighboring countries can help Afghanistan leave behind its painful memories and the hard conditions of the past.
He underlined that if Afghanistan adopts a regional-based approach, it will turn into an active country with positive and unified interactions, which can also play a pivotal role at the international level.
Explaining the goals of the Monday conference, Kazemi Qomi said that the objective should be based on the security of Afghanistan and its neighboring countries to prepare a collective plan against terrorist organizations, which guarantees common interests as well.
He went on to say that the countries party to the regional contact committee should consider some issues related to long-standing threats mainly originating from more than two decades of the US occupation of the country. Kazemi Qomi said that the parties to the committee should reach a consensus on the following issues:
1- Cultivation, processing, accumulation, dealing, and trafficking of traditional and industrial drugs
2- Human trafficking, displacement, and unsheltered people
3- Combating roots of extremism
4- Upholding equal rights, including those in education and employment, for various walks of life regardless of their gender, race, language, and religion
5- Combating natural disasters and managing environmental issues
MP/IRN
