{"id":8972,"date":"2021-04-14T16:39:18","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T13:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/?p=8972"},"modified":"2021-05-30T13:34:21","modified_gmt":"2021-05-30T10:34:21","slug":"the-9th-heart-of-asia-conference-and-the-significance-of-zarifs-attendance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/monitoring-and-translation\/reports\/the-9th-heart-of-asia-conference-and-the-significance-of-zarifs-attendance\/","title":{"rendered":"The 9th Heart of Asia Conference and the Significance of Zarif\u2019s Attendance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif recently visited Dushanbe to attend<\/a> the ninth Ministerial Conference of the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process (HoA-IP) which was held on\u00a0 March 30, 2021. The conference was titled \u201cStrengthening Consensus for Peace and Development\u201d and was led by Afghanistan to enhance dialogue and build trust among regional countries to promote stability and prosperity in Afghanistan and the heart of Asia region. The security situation in Afghanistan hinges on reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Iran remains an important actor in Afghanistan and maintains interactions with both actors.\u00a0Although Iran did not attend the Moscow Conference on Afghan Peace, <\/a>it communicated<\/a> that it is willing to extend its support to an Afghan interim government only if it includes\u00a0\u201cminority ethnic groups\u201d over which\u00a0 Tehran has a strong degree of influence.\u00a0During his visit to Dushanbe, Zarif also met with his counterparts from Central Asia and South Asia to discuss opportunities to widen economic interactions.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0Washington is pushing the Afghan government and the Taliban to reconcile quickly\u00a0 as the proposed US deadline<\/a> for troop withdrawal from Afghanistan nears,\u00a0although, Biden has recently said that the security situation in the country\u00a0 is not conducive for a comprehensive\u00a0withdrawal. A recent newspaper report<\/a> revealed that the Biden administration is planning to pressure all parties to reduce the levels of violence\u00a0 and eventually<\/a> withdraw\u00a0US troops.\u00a0The Taliban is unwilling to negotiate with the United States to extend the US troop withdrawal deadline and has urged the United States to observe the deadline at any cost. Iran\u2019s close\u00a0 interactions with the Taliban are important here as both the Taliban and Tehran\u00a0blame<\/a> the United States for the ongoing violence in Afghanistan and are eager to minimize US influence in the country. Reflecting their growing interactions, Iran recently hosted<\/a> a senior Taliban delegation despite their ideological and theological differences.\u00a0The Taliban in recent months has increased its violence targeting journalists<\/a>, media workers, and judges. Moreover, if US troops are not withdrawn by May 1, 2021,\u00a0this will\u00a0eventually lead to the Doha Accord\u00a0\u00a0collapsing.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the side-lines of the HoA-IP, Zarif also met with other foreign ministers and national leaders. Zarif met Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and discussed<\/a> various ways to widen bilateral cooperation with Tajikistan. Iran in recent years has tried to repair its ties and increase bilateral economic interactions with Tajikistan especially through infrastructure projects like the Istiqlol tunnel<\/a> and Sangtuda 2 hydroelectric power plant<\/a>. Zarif also met<\/a> his Azeri counterpart, Jeyhun Bayramov on the side-lines and discussed geopolitical developments in the Caucasus region and Tehran-Baku\u00a0 cooperation regarding the Caspian Sea and other issues of mutual interest. Iran\u2019s\u00a0 interactions with Azerbaijan in recent years\u00a0 have been complicated especially amid\u00a0 Tehran arresting<\/a> several Azeri activists<\/a> and its meddling\u00a0 in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict via supplying Armenia with weapons.\u00a0 The demarcation of the resource-rich Caspian Sea remains a lingering issue with increasing competition among Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, and Iran. As per some experts, Iran intends to take advantage of Turkey\u2019s growing role in the Caspian Sea to extend cooperation<\/a> with Russia to counter Ankara\u2019s\u00a0deepening influence in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zarif met<\/a> Pakistan\u2019s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and exchanged views on the Afghan peace process and  ways to improve  bilateral relations. Another important meeting on the side-lines was between Zarif and India\u2019s Minister of External Affairs Dr. S. Jaishankar. The meeting took place amid renewed attempts<\/a> to improve India-Iran relations although New Delhi has still not resumed oil imports from Iran. India recently handed over<\/a> two 140-ton mobile harbor cranes to the authorities at Chabahar port  for the development of phase-1 of Shahid Beheshti port in Chabahar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zarif\u2019s visit to Dushanbe was significant for two important reasons.\u00a0Firstly, Iran wants to ensure US troops withdraw from Afghanistan and its interests are preserved in any new political set-up in the country. This is reflected in its growing interactions with the Taliban as well as with other actors in the country. Rahaina Azad, an Afghan lawmaker, confirmed that Iran helps the\u00a0Taliban in Herat, Helmand, Farah, and Ghazni.<\/a> Azad said<\/a>, \u00a0\u201cIf Iran really wanted to be an honest, neighbourly nation, they should stop funding and training the Taliban.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, Iran remains desperate to repair ties and advance bilateral relations with prospective long-term partners, especially from Central Asia and South Asia to revive its ailing economy which has suffered immensely due to harsh US sanctions.\u00a0As per a recent US Congressional Research Service (CRS) report<\/a>, one of Iran\u2019s coping strategies amid US sanctions has been to diversify the countries it exports to in order to widen its economic interactions. Iran\u2019s resistance economy<\/a> remains a major reason for\u00a0 its ongoing economic crises,\u00a0 and it has\u00a0 impacted<\/a> the country\u2019s access to foreign exchange reserves. Moreover, a recent study<\/a>\u00a0 indicates that\u00a0 the Iranian people are\u00a0 angered<\/a> about the Iranian government\u2019s policies in general and they believe\u00a0 that\u00a0 its handling of the economy has worsened<\/a> over time leading to more socio-economic suffering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif recently visited Dushanbe to attend the ninth Ministerial Conference of the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process (HoA-IP) which was held on March 30, 2021. The conference was titled \u201cStrengthening Consensus for Peace and Development\u201d and was led by Afghanistan to enhance dialogue and build trust among regional countries to promote stability and prosperity in Afghanistan and the heart of Asia region. The security situation in Afghanistan hinges on reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Iran remains an important actor in Afghanistan and maintains interactions with both actors. Although Iran did not attend the Moscow Conference on Afghan Peace, it communicated that it is willing to extend its support to an Afghan interim government only if it includes \u201cminority ethnic groups\u201d over which Tehran has a strong degree of influence. During his visit to Dushanbe, Zarif also met with his counterparts from Central Asia and South Asia to discuss opportunities to widen economic interactions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":8973,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[778,1637,5784],"class_list":["post-8972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports","tag-asia","tag-iran-in-a-week","tag-zarifs-attendance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8972"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9170,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8972\/revisions\/9170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}