Following Monday’s interview by Iranian FM Javad Zarif, who detailed Afghan militias in Syria as not being there on behalf of Iran, Afghan officials and the Taliban have fired back, objecting to the comments.
Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Gran Hewad noted it is not allowed by current Afghan foreign policy to go fighting abroad without an Afghan flag. He termed Zarif’s comments to be in violation of the constitution of Afghanistan.
The Taliban’s response was much the same, accusing Iran of meddling in internal affairs. This is actually the opposite of Zarif’s comments, which insisted they were not “ordering” the Afghans around, and that they decided to fight ISIS in Syria.
The Afghan militias are Shi’ite and this leads some media to present them as Iranian proxies. Zarif’s comments meant to dispute that, and insist that the Shi’ites are there voluntarily. The complaints about Zarif’s comments seem to be a continued attempt to vilify Afghanistan’s major neighbor.
Zarif specifically wanted to deny interfering in Afghan policy, and if Afghan law actually forbids them going overseas to fight, the onus is really on Afghanistan to try to stop them. There is no sign they ever even attempted to, and they’re now blaming Iran after the fact.
More trouble from the Neocon/oilman illegal invasion of Afghanistan. Seems
that there may have been some crazy dream of getting India on board with demonizing Muslims. Even though they are a sizable minority. More trouble for the MIC to manipulate and profit. What a bowl of cherry for the malintent class!