THE HAGUE -- Iran on Tuesday dismissed President Obama's decision to send 17,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan as an "ineffective" strategy to improve security, but it offered to help in efforts to combat drug-trafficking in the war-torn country. Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh also said Tehran plans to play an active role in Afghanistan's reconstruction. "The presence of foreign forces has not improved things in the country, and it seems that an increase in the number of foreign forces will prove ineffective, too," he said in prepared remarks to an international conference on Afghanistan at The Hague.
More than 80 countries and organizations gathered for the hastily arranged conference, which was proposed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton three weeks ago.
"Iran is fully prepared to participate in the projects aimed at combating drug-trafficking and the plans in line with developing and reconstruction of Afghanistan," said Mr. Akhoundzadeh, who was sent to the ministerial-level meeting instead of Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
Mrs. Clinton said she had no plans to hold a substantive meeting with the Iranian diplomat. In her remarks, she backed Afghan President Hamid Karzai's plan to reconcile with those Taliban and al Qaeda members who renounce violence.
"We must also support efforts by the government of Afghanistan to separate the extremists of al Qaeda and the Taliban from those who joined their ranks not out of conviction, but out of desperation. This is, in fact, the case for a majority of those fighting with the Taliban," the secretary said. "They should be offered an honorable form of reconciliation and reintegration into a peaceful society, if they are willing to abandon violence, break with al Qaeda, and support the constitution," she added.