Iran Hosts Conference Of Afghanistan’s Fearful Neighbors

 

Serious Troubles


You know how I’ve been saying the Taliban and its alleged government in Afghanistan are in deep trouble? And how the rest of the world may get pulled into their problems?


Well, guess what? Now real government officials are saying something similar. In fact, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Iran has just hosted a meeting of the nations who share a border with Afghanistan to discuss some sort of joint response to the Taliban government and its ever mounting problems.* Officials from Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, plus (attending via video link) Russia and China, gathered in Tehran to express their concerns.


At least from what was said publicly, it doesn’t sound like the conference accomplished much beyond expressions of hope that the Taliban will form a “more inclusive” government, and that something will be done about various terrorist groups based in Afghanistan, like ISIS-K, which are now free to threaten the whole region. But you never can tell what happened behind the scenes. Maybe something more productive was done in secret.


In any case, it’s nice to know that, once in a while, my crackpot opinions are actually shared by people who might, you know, actually do something about the problem.  Whether they will genuinely do anything is beyond me to say, but, still, I’ll take what I can get in the way of affirmation.


Makes a nice change of pace, you know?


~mjt



*Source: “Iran Hosts Conference With Afghanistan's Neighbors,” Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Oct 27, 2021, https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-afghanistan-conference-neighbors/31532363.html



Copyright©2021 Michael Jay Tucker

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