Ashraf Ghani in Tehran: Not Just a Ceremonial Visit

Prior to his visit to Iran, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai made visits to Saudi Arabia, China and Pakistan. He was supposed to visit Iran two months ago but it was said that his visit was postponed due to the flood which killed many Afghans. This is while Afghanistan has always been faced with natural disasters; for example, two days ago, 50 people were killed in eastern Afghanistan. If visits were supposed to be postponed due to the killing of people, then this visit should have been postponed also because so many people were killed in a suicide bombing. But since Ashraf Ghani was supposed to visit the US and meet with the officials of this country, based on the analysis of some analysts, the postponement of his visit to Iran was his gift to the Americans in order to say that he had visited the US before Iran. Therefore, from the political aspect, the postponement of his visit to Iran was aimed at pleasing the US officials.

Nonetheless, the president of Afghanistan came to Iran at the head of a delegation. Agreements are to be signed during this visit because the Ministers of the Interior, Immigration, Commerce and Mines are also present in this delegation. But this visit is aimed at bringing relations between the two countries closer together.

The interesting point is that prior to his visit, Ashraf Ghani approved of Saudi Arabia’s attack against Yemen. These statements are against Iran’s positions in this regard. In fact, Ashraf Ghani is a member of a lobby on top of which is the US and then Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Nevertheless, this visit should be regarded as a good step in improving relations between the two countries particularly with regard to the issue of Afghan immigrants – right now about two million Afghans live in Iran.

Ashraf Ghani must realize that the US is not determined to fight against terrorism and narcotics. Hamed Karzai was hopeful of the US during the first years of his presidency. But during the last two or three years, he stated that the US does not seek security in Afghanistan. But Ashraf Ghani asked the US in his visit to keep its forces in this country. It seemed that the US officials expected this demand; because based on their newest decisions, the US forces will remain in Afghanistan until 2016 and this issue will lead to the continuation of the war. Last year the US officials stated that the Taliban is no longer their enemy. This means that the Taliban project has turned into the ISIS project. The white flag of the Taliban has transformed into the black flag of ISIS. For the first time, ISIS has taken the responsibility of the suicide attack in Jalalabad located in eastern Afghanistan which killed more than 40 people including children and wounded more than 100 people.

Furthermore, five Shiites were beheaded last Friday in Afghanistan. Although the local officials said that the Taliban were the culprits of these crimes, some other officials said that ISIS was responsible. In addition, 31 Shiites were kidnapped in Zabol Province but the government has not taken any measures to find them. All these cases indicate that the US attempts to involve Afghanistan in religious and ethnic challenges similar to Iraq and Pakistan. Ashraf Ghani must be aware of this situation and he has warned against the serious threat of ISIS in his visit to the US. On the other hand, following Pakistan’s military operation against Taliban positions, the majority of the terrorist groups including the Pakistani Taliban, al-Qaeda, Uzbeks and Tajiks were transferred into northern Afghanistan. This shows that they intend to direct the war towards Central Asia and spread ISIS in that region.

If Ashraf Ghani intends to achieve his goals including the establishment of peace in Afghanistan, he should know that this goal will not be achieved with US cooperation. Thus, he must turn Afghanistan into a country which has the capability to do so as Iraq asked Iran for its cooperation and Iran sent its military advisors to mobilize the local people to fight against ISIS (as the prime minister and president of Iraq confessed that if Iran had not helped, Baghdad would have been captured by the ISIS as well). Hence, Iran is the most serious country which could help Afghanistan in the fight against terrorism and narcotics and Afghanistan’s President must take note of this fact. That is why this visit must not be a ceremonial one. If they intend to achieve their goals, they should take this visit seriously.