A Taliban delegation led by the Afghan Foreign Ministry visited Tehran on Saturday to discuss the economic and migration crises in Afghanistan, a first since the Islamists took power.
Read alsoIran tries a new start with the Taliban
Iran, like the rest of the international community, has still not recognized the new Islamic Emirate formed by the Taliban after they took power in mid-August following the withdrawal of American troops.
"The visit aims to address political, economic, transit, and migration issues," said on Twitter Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesman for the Afghan Foreign Ministry.
The Taliban delegation, led by Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, has already participated in a first meeting with Iranian officials, he said.
Shia Iran, which shares a border of more than 900 kilometers with Afghanistan, had not recognized the previous regime of the Taliban, a Sunni Islamist group, in place between 1996 and 2001.
Tehran seemed to sketch in recent months a rapprochement with the Islamists, without recognizing their new state.
"Today we are not at all to the point of recognizing" the Taliban, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Said Khatibzadeh told a press conference this week, urging the Taliban to make an effort to gain the confidence of the international community.
The latter established an exclusively male government, composed entirely of members of the movement, almost all of the Pashtun ethnic group.
They further restricted the right of women to work and study, attracting a number of convictions abroad.
Read alsoAfghanistan, land of violence
Iran, where millions of Afghans already live, fears an increase in migrant arrivals, as Afghanistan faces one of the world's worst humanitarian and economic crises.
