The beginning of a new era in US and Iranian relations started in The Hague’s International Conference on Afghanistan on the 31st of March 2009 which was hosted by the Dutch government and sponsored by the United Nations. This was the first official political communication between the two States for almost three decades, since the Iranian revolution in 1979.
Building on the achievements of previous Conferences in Bonn, London and Paris, this Conference should reaffirm the solid and long-term commitment of the international community to supporting the Government of Afghanistan in shaping security and a better future for Afghanistan and its people.
The US’s presidential envoy Richard C. Holbrooke and the Iranian deputy foreign minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhondzadeh, encountered each other on the sidelines of the conference. Although brief, the meeting between the two diplomats is evidence that the Obama Administration is taking unprecedented steps towards building a bridge with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The Iranian deputy foreign minister made clear that Iran was prepared to aid in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and to cooperate in regional efforts to crack down on the booming Afghan drug trade, which is spilling across the Iranian border.
The questions of border security, and in particular the transit of narcotics across the border from Afghanistan to Iran is common interest to both countries.
Iran cooperated with the United States on Afghanistan in the days after the 2001 terrorist attacks, and administration officials still view it as one of the most promising avenues for reconciliation between the two distant countries.
It was reported by the U.S Secretary of State Mrs. Hilary Clinton, that the United States handed the Iranian delegation a letter requesting its intercession in the cases of two American citizens who are being held in Iran and another who is missing.
Robert Levinson, 59, who had gone to Kish, a resort island off the southern coast of Iran, to investigate cigarette counterfeiting for a private company had gone missing.
Roxana Saberi, 31, who has worked as a freelancer in Iran for six years, was arrested Jan. 31 by the Iranian authorities after buying a bottle of wine.
Esha Momeni, an Iranian- American graduate student, was in Iran to visit relatives and do research on women's rights when she was arrested on Oct. 15 while driving in Tehran.
These two American contacts with Iran are another step in the Obama administration’s policy of engagement. It is a tentative process, in which the White House makes symbolic gestures, like President Obam's recent video greeting to the Iranian people and government for their New Year, while continuing to formulate its longer-term strategy.
Building on the achievements of previous Conferences in Bonn, London and Paris, this Conference should reaffirm the solid and long-term commitment of the international community to supporting the Government of Afghanistan in shaping security and a better future for Afghanistan and its people.
The US’s presidential envoy Richard C. Holbrooke and the Iranian deputy foreign minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhondzadeh, encountered each other on the sidelines of the conference. Although brief, the meeting between the two diplomats is evidence that the Obama Administration is taking unprecedented steps towards building a bridge with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The Iranian deputy foreign minister made clear that Iran was prepared to aid in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and to cooperate in regional efforts to crack down on the booming Afghan drug trade, which is spilling across the Iranian border.
The questions of border security, and in particular the transit of narcotics across the border from Afghanistan to Iran is common interest to both countries.
Iran cooperated with the United States on Afghanistan in the days after the 2001 terrorist attacks, and administration officials still view it as one of the most promising avenues for reconciliation between the two distant countries.
It was reported by the U.S Secretary of State Mrs. Hilary Clinton, that the United States handed the Iranian delegation a letter requesting its intercession in the cases of two American citizens who are being held in Iran and another who is missing.
Robert Levinson, 59, who had gone to Kish, a resort island off the southern coast of Iran, to investigate cigarette counterfeiting for a private company had gone missing.
Roxana Saberi, 31, who has worked as a freelancer in Iran for six years, was arrested Jan. 31 by the Iranian authorities after buying a bottle of wine.
Esha Momeni, an Iranian- American graduate student, was in Iran to visit relatives and do research on women's rights when she was arrested on Oct. 15 while driving in Tehran.
These two American contacts with Iran are another step in the Obama administration’s policy of engagement. It is a tentative process, in which the White House makes symbolic gestures, like President Obam's recent video greeting to the Iranian people and government for their New Year, while continuing to formulate its longer-term strategy.
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