THE HAGUE, (Reuters) – Iran offered help in combating the Afghan drugs trade yesterday, in a gesture to a U.S. call for regional support in Afghanistan that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described as promising.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh told an international meeting on Afghanistan in The Hague that Tehran was ready to help both in fighting the country’s huge opium trade and in reconstruction of the impoverished state.
Clinton, in The Hague to seek broad support for a revamped strategy unveiled by President Barack Obama to tackle Islamist militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan, welcomed the gesture by Tehran that will be closely watched for any follow-up.
“I did think that the Iranian intervention this morning was promising,” she told reporters of Akhoundzadeh’s speech.
