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Iran accepts US Afghan invitation | Iran accepts US Afghan invitation |
(about 3 hours later) | |
Iran has confirmed it will attend a US-backed international conference on the future of Afghanistan next week. | Iran has confirmed it will attend a US-backed international conference on the future of Afghanistan next week. |
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said Tehran had not yet decided who it would send to the one-day summit in The Hague. | |
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said earlier this month that Iran should attend the high-level meeting. | US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said earlier this month that Iran should attend the high-level meeting. |
While the US and Iran are at odds over Tehran's nuclear plans, the two share an interest in a stable Afghanistan. | While the US and Iran are at odds over Tehran's nuclear plans, the two share an interest in a stable Afghanistan. |
"We will participate in the Afghanistan meeting. At what level, I don't know yet, but we will participate," Mr Ghashghavi said. | |
Strategy review | |
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as well as delegates from more than 80 countries are due to attend next Tuesday's meeting. | |
During her visit to Europe earlier this month, Mrs Clinton proposed the summit and said Iran should be a part of it. | |
"There are a lot of reasons why Iran would be interested. So they will be invited," she said at the time. | |
"Obviously it is up to them to decide whether to come." | |
Confirmation of Iran's attendance is likely to be welcomed by Washington, which has not had diplomatic ties with Tehran for three decades. | |
Tensions have been high over Iran's nuclear work, which Washington says is aimed at building an atomic bomb and Tehran insists is a civilian energy programme. | |
President Barack Obama has said the US is ready to talk to Iran if it "unclenched its fist". | |
Details of a review of US strategy on Afghanistan, which is battling a growing Taleban insurgency, are expected to be released ahead of the conference. | |
Iran, which opposed the Taleban regime toppled by the US-led invasion in 2001, has experienced a rise in drug use as easily available heroin from Afghanistan flows across the border. |