An Afghan government delegation met with Taliban representatives in Tehran Wednesday, the Iranian foreign ministry said, as the Islamist militia pressed a lightning advance amid the pullout of U.S. troops.
Leading negotiator Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai headed the Taliban delegation while former vice president Younus Qanooni represented the government, the Iranian ministry said.
Iran hosts several million Afghan refugees and migrant workers and is deeply concerned about the intensifying turmoil in the neighbouring country, AFP reported.
On Tuesday, Afghan authorities vowed to retake all the districts lost to the Taliban as the pullout of U.S. forces neared completion.
Hundreds of commandos were deployed to counter the insurgents' blistering offensive in the north, a day after more than 1,000 government troops fled into neighbouring Tajikistan.
But on Wednesday, the Taliban attacked the Badghis provincial capital Qalat-i-Naw, the first regional seat they have entered since the launch of their latest offensive, local officials said. The insurgents already control all of the surrounding countryside in the western province.
The U.S. Central Command meanwhile announced that the American withdrawal from the country, ordered in April by President Joe Biden, was now more than 90 percent complete, underscoring that Afghan forces are increasingly on their own in the battle with the Taliban.
