Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani have agreed to a cooperation pact. This comes as President Karzai continues to resist signing a security agreement with the United States.
Karzai reportedly made the deal with Rouhani in Tehran on Sunday. “Afghanistan agreed on a long-term friendship and cooperation pact with Iran,” Karzai’s spokesman Aimal Faizi said. “The pact will be for long-term political, security, economic and cultural cooperation, regional peace and security.” Afghanistan earlier signed a cooperation pact with Iran in August covering mainly security issues, but Faizi said the proposed new agreement would have a far broader scope. On Sunday, Rouhani said his country opposes the presence of any foreign forces in Afghanistan and the region, saying their presence generates tension, the IRNA news agency reported. IRNA quoted Rouhani telling Karzai, “We believe that all foreign forces should leave the region and that the security of Afghanistan should be handed over to people of the country.”
With close to 600 miles of common borders with Afghanistan, Iran has long opposed the planned agreement to allow U.S. forces to remain stationed on its doorstep. Rouhani also opposes any foreign forces in the region, the Middle East or the Persian Gulf where the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet has a base in the kingdom of Bahrain.
On Saturday, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel laid out steps to beef up defense cooperation between states within the Gulf region while at the same time insisting that America’s military commitment to the Middle East will continue. In a speech to Gulf leaders, he also made it clear that the emerging global agreement that would limit Iran’s nuclear program doesn’t mean the security threat from the Islamic republic is over. General Hosein Dehghan, Iran’s Defense Minister, called Hagel’s remarks “threatening” on Sunday adding that they pave the ground for mistrust toward the U.S. while revealing the influence of Israel, Iran’s arch-enemy, on Washington.
Iran signed an interim agreement over its nuclear program with world powers last month and Rouhani has been trying to convince skeptics at home that the move was not compromising on key issues of national sovereignty. Israel has repeatedly criticized the deal and called it a “historic mistake,” saying economic sanctions must be toughened, not eased.