By IANS,
Berlin : German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said Iran has an important role to play in Afghanistan as the global community look for ways to stabilise the worsening security situation in that country.
Jung said Iran could have an “important influence” in fighting cross-border drug trafficking, which is a major source of revenue fuelling the Afghan insurgency.
“To include (Afghanistan’s) neighbours is principally important, since Pakistan is a retreat area for Taliban,” IRNA said Wednesday citing the minister.
He said drug trafficking in northern Afghanistan and in the Afghan-Iranian border regions have become a “major problem”. “That’s why we are having talks on enabling better controls (in those regions).”
There are around 3,500 German troops in Afghanistan as part of the 55,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The German parliamentary mandate allows the deployment of up to 4,500 troops in Afghanistan.
The US, Britain and Canada have recently urged Germany to send more troops to Afghanistan to help the NATO-led forces fighting the Al Qaeda and Taliban insurgency in southern part of the country.