Iran, US find common cause on Afghanistan

Barack Obama's administration had its first direct contact with Iran Tuesday at a conference on Afghanistan where America and its old foe found common cause on rebuilding the war-torn state.

But, in a sign Tehran and Washington are far from reconciled, Iran warned that the planned US troop surge in Afghanistan would fail to crush the Taliban-led insurgency there.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said top American and Iranian officials met at the international conference in The Hague.

"Our special representative for Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, had a brief and cordial exchange with the head of the Iranian delegation," she told reporters.

But Iran's representative Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh warned that President Obama's promised surge of US troops was a mistake.

"The presence of foreign forces has not improved things in the country and it seems that an increase in the number of foreign forces will prove ineffective too," the Iranian deputy foreign minister told the conference.

More than half of the 70,000 foreign soldiers in the unruly central Asian state are Americans.

Obama said last Friday he would send 4,000 more US troops to train Afghan security forces in addition to an extra 17,000 already committed.

Iran has not had diplomatic relations with the US for nearly three decades, and was included in former president George W. Bush's "axis of evil."

But despite their rivalry, the US and Shiite-majority Iran are both sworn enemies of the Taliban, a Sunni Muslim militia initially backed by Pakistan, that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

Obama has reached out to the Islamic republic, sending a video appeal on March 20 for the Persian New Year in which he spoke of a "new beginning."

Clinton and Iran's representative at the Hague meeting stressed their support for projects to rebuild Afghanistan and end its role as the epicentre of the global heroin trade that helps finance Al-Qaeda activities.

"Trafficking in narcotics, the spread of violent extremism, economic stagnation are regional challenges that will require regional solutions," said Clinton as she sat across the table from Akhoundzadeh.

She was addressing Afghan President Hamid Karzai, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and representatives of 90 countries and organisations.

Akhoundzadeh said his country was "fully prepared to participate in the projects aimed at combatting drug trafficking and the plans in line with developing and reconstructing Afghanistan."

Afghanistan is the source of 90 percent of the world's heroin.

Karzai and Clinton agreed dialogue with moderate Taliban members could help stem the insurgency.

"There is also a degree of cynicism by the international community, because we've heard so many declarations like that before."





Bleier