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Afghan Leader Postpones Iran Visit Over Nuclear Standoff - Tajik Agency

Posted on: Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 09:00 CST

Excerpt from report by Tajik news agency Asia-Plus

Dushanbe, 17 January: The Tajik president [Emomali Rahmonov] left for Iran on a two-day official visit today.

[passage omitted: known facts on Rahmonov's visit to Iran]

Upon the completion of his visit to Iran tomorrow, the head of state will leave for Turkey. The president's press service has told Asia-Plus that the head of state was due to attend a summit of the Persian speaking countries of Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan [in Iran]. However, this meeting will not be held because the Afghan leader has postponed his visit to Iran.

The afghanistan.ru Internet news agency has reported that Afghan President Hamed Karzai has put off his official visit to Teheran due to technical reasons. The report said the visit would have been the first one after the inauguration of Ahmadinezhad as Iran's president.

Although it was officially said that "technical" reasons were behind the postponement of the visit, local analysts link this to the exacerbation of the situation around Iran's nuclear programme.

Analysts believe that Karzai's visit to Iran prior to an international conference on Afghanistan, scheduled to be held in London at the end of January, could hamper the dialogue with the West.

[passage omitted: known facts on Rahmonov's visit to Turkey]

Source: BBC Monitoring Central Asia

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