Iran's Raisi calls US 'defeat' in Afghanistan opportunity for peace

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's comments came as the deteriorating security situation forced Tehran to draw down its diplomatic presence in Afghanistan.
Afghan people climb atop a plane as they wait at the Kabul airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021, after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan's 20-year war, as thousands of people mobbed the city's airport trying to flee the group's feared hardline brand of Islamist rule.
Afghan people climb onto a plane as they wait at the Kabul airport in Kabul on Aug. 16, 2021, after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan's 20-year war. - WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images
Al Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East
Al-Monitor Staff

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Monday that the United States’ “defeat” in Afghanistan could make way for peace as the war-torn country reels from the Taliban’s lightning advance.  

"The military defeat and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan should offer an opportunity to restore life, security and lasting peace in that country," Raisi’s office quoted him as telling outgoing Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a call Monday.

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