KABUL: Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Kabul Sunday on the highest-level visit by an Iranian official to the Afghan capital since the Taliban\u2019s takeover in 2021.
\nThe one-day visit is part of an effort to bolster relations between the two countries and \u201cpursue mutual interests,\u201d according to foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei.
\nUpon his arrival, Araghchi met with his Afghani counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi, and he is scheduled to sit down later with the deputy prime minister for economic affairs, Abdul Ghani Baradar, state TV reported.
\nDiscussions will revolve around border security, strengthening political ties and expanding economic relations, it added.
\nTensions between Iran and Afghanistan have intensified in recent years over water rights and the construction of dams on the Helmand and Harirud rivers.
\nIran shares more than 900 kilometers (560 miles) of border with Afghanistan, and the Islamic republic hosts one of the largest refugee populations in the world, mostly Afghans who fled their country over two decades of war.
\nThe flow of Afghan immigrants has increased since the Taliban took over in August 2021 after US forces withdrew.
\nIn September, local media in Iran announced the building of a wall along more than 10 kilometers of the eastern border with Afghanistan, the main entry point for immigrants.
\nOfficials said at the time that additional methods to fortify the border including barbed wire and water-filled ditches to counter the \u201csmuggling of fuel and goods, especially drugs,\u201d and to prevent \u201cillegal immigration.\u201d
\nIn December, Iran\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, said \u201cover six million Afghans have sought refuge in Iran.\u201d
\nIran has had an active diplomatic presence in Afghanistan for many years, but it has yet to officially recognize the Taliban government since the takeover.
\nSeveral Iranian delegations have visited Afghanistan over the years, including a parliamentary delegation in August 2023 to discuss water rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KABUL: Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Kabul Sunday on the highest-level visit by an Iranian official to the Afghan capital since the Taliban\u2019s takeover in 2021. The one-day visit is part of an effort to bolster relations between the two countries and \u201cpursue mutual interests,\u201d according to foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei. Upon …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":76155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76156,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76138\/revisions\/76156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}