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Is Iran-Taliban cold peace within reach?

To secure its part in Afghanistan's political future, Iran is actively engaging the Taliban, but the road will be bumpy, given the multiple ideological and geopolitical challenges.
Members of a Taliban delegation, led by chief negotiator Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar (C, front), leave after peace talks with Afghan senior politicians in Moscow, Russia May 30, 2019. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina - RC17FC2683A0

A delegation of senior Taliban officials arrived in Tehran on Nov. 27 for talks with Iranian authorities, including Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Headed by the group's bureau chief, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the team comprised the Taliban's highest-ranking members to have ever visited Iran.

Since its emergence in the Afghan political landscape in the early 1990s, the Taliban has had hostile relations — chilly, at best — with Iran. Thus, the meetings in Tehran prompted the questions: What is the Islamic Republic set to achieve through engaging the Taliban? How positive are the prospects of Iran's success in its new approach?

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