PARIS (AFP)--Iran failed to send its envoy to a major conference in Paris Sunday aimed at persuading Afghanistan's neighbors to play a greater role in restoring stability in the war-torn state.
French officials said delegates will urge the states around Afghanistan, in particular Iran and Pakistan, to play a more positive role in supporting Kabul's attempts to regain control over its territory.
Iran had promised to send its Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, according to French officials, but in the end he failed to make the trip and the Iranian ambassador also failed to show up, a diplomatic source said.
French-Iranian relations were strained this week after the foreign ministry in Tehran summoned the French ambassador to protest remarks by President Nicolas Sarkozy condemning Iran's threats against Israel.
The one-day Paris conference brings together top envoys from Afghanistan, its neighbors and the world's great powers to discuss ways out of the beleaguered country's seemingly endless state of war
Pakistan has been accused of not doing enough to prevent cross-border operations by the Taliban. In recent weeks NATO convoys and even their supply depots have been attacked within Pakistan itself.
On the eve of the talks, however, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi insisted progress has been made.
"There's a greater level of confidence between the leadership of Afghanistan and Pakistan," he told reporters in Paris. "We have a well-defined road map between Afghanistan and Pakistan but we've got to have the other players involved."
Commenting on the recent increase in Taliban attacks, he said: "It's a reaction to the effective operations taken by the Pakistani government and military forces in the tribal belt."
The hosts want to involve more Afghans in work to stabilize the country, where 70,000 foreign troops under NATO and U.S. command are battling resurgent Taliban and extremist forces for control.
French officials played down expectations of rapid progress, noting that little new in the way of policy can be decided while the world waits for U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to take office Jan. 20.
The envoys will hold a full day of closed-door talks at French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner's official out-of-town residence at La Celle-Saint-Cloud in the leafy western suburbs of Paris.
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Publié le 14 Décembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones