Statements Received from China and Iran

The Embassies of China and Iran to Denmark, submitted the following statements to the seminar, “Afghanistan: What Now? Peace Through Economic Development,” co-sponsored by the Schiller Institute and the Copenhagen bureau of EIR, held in Copenhagen, Denmark on October 11, 2021.

Statement from the Chinese Embassy on Afghanistan

As a close neighbor of Afghanistan, China has always respected its sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity, adhered to non-interference in its internal affairs and pursued a friendly policy towards all Afghanistan people. We hope that the Taliban will build a broad-based and inclusive political structure, pursue moderate and prudent domestic and foreign policies, protect the rights of women and children, resolutely combat terrorist forces, and develop friendly and cooperative relations with its neighbors and other countries. We sincerely hope that Afghanistan can find a development path suitable to its national conditions. To meet the immediate needs of the Afghan people, China has announced that it will provide 200 million RMB worth of supplies to Afghanistan, including 3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. When the security and other conditions allow, China is willing to assist Afghanistan to build projects that will help improve livelihoods, and will do its best to support Afghanistan in its peaceful reconstruction and economic development.

We call upon the international community to play a constructive role in Afghanistan’s peaceful reconstruction on the basis of respecting the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, respecting the will of the Afghan people, and adhering to the Afghan-led and Afghan-owned principle. We need to have more dialogue and give more advice to the new authority in Afghanistan without any prejudice or preconceived idea, and we should not create any difficulty for them. Humanitarian assistance is of utmost urgency. Economic sanctions must stop. Unilateral sanctions or restrictions on Afghanistan should be lifted. The country’s foreign currency reserves are national assets that should not be used as a bargaining chip to exert political pressure on Afghanistan.

The abrupt change in Afghanistan reminds us once again that military intervention and power politics do not have popular support, and foreign models and the so-called democratic transformation are not sustainable. What relevant countries have done in Afghanistan in the past 20 years has ended in failure. They should seriously reflect on it and correct mistakes timely, instead of walking away from the problems of their own doing and leaving them to Afghanistan and other countries in the region. After all, they bear the inescapable political, security, economic and humanitarian responsibilities for Afghanistan and are more obliged than other countries to help Afghanistan maintain stability, prevent chaos, and embark on the road of peace and reconstruction. They should earnestly honor their commitment to the Afghan people and take concrete actions to participate in the international community’s assistance efforts in Afghanistan.

Statement by Iran Embassy Representative at Schiller Institute Seminar on Afghanistan

The representative of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran at this seminar, whilst emphasizing on the need for an inclusive government, respect for civil and democratic rights of all citizens without discrimination in Afghanistan, highlighted the important role the neighboring countries can play in helping peace and security to be established in the country, and alleviating the sufferings of its people.

He pointed out that with terrorist activities in the region and with drug production in Afghanistan reaching record levels, the security and law enforcement forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in the past four decades, have been constantly engaged in combating terrorism and drug smuggling along its 900 km border with Afghanistan and have suffered casualties in their efforts to close off this route for drugs reaching the West.

Throughout this period Iran has also hosted millions of Afghan refugees, estimated to have peaked at 4 million, accommodating and providing them with health and educational services on a par with that afforded to its own population, including Covid-19 vaccinations. This has been a heavy burden on Iran given the fact that, contrary to other refugee host nations, the country has received little or no assistance from the international community.

With the recent developments in Afghanistan, an influx of new refugees from that country, expected to reach half a million, is already taking place, and Iran, with its ability to help new arrivals hampered by the heaviest sanctions under the U.S. maximum pressure campaign, is doing all it can to help its Afghan brethren, while cooperating with the UN agencies to help address the problems facing the people of Afghanistan.

In one important move, the Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with due regard to the importance of providing education for Afghan refugee children, called on the Iranian authorities to register, free of charge, Afghan children at Iranian schools alongside their Iranian brothers and sisters.

Finally, the Islamic Republic of Iran considers the active involvement of all Afghanistan’s neighbors paramount in any moves towards addressing these issues and is willing to continue to play a positive role in the efforts to achieve goals desired and shared by all Afghans.