Iran’s Qomi to attend Doha meeting, slams ‘unilateral’ approaches by ‘big powers’

Hassan Kazemi Qomi, the special envoy of the Iranian president for Afghanistan affairs, has confirmed he will attend Monday’s meeting on Afghanistan set to be held in Doha and hosted by the United Nations’ secretary general.

In an interview with the Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) he said Iran’s stance at the meeting will be based on a “deep understanding of the realities and requirements” of the Afghanistan government and its people.

He said: “We strongly and openly criticize the unilateral approaches adopted by big powers and international organizations.”

Referring to similarities between Iran and Afghanistan’s people, Qomi said that Iran opposes the sanctions leveled against Afghanistan and urged the UN to take into account the humanitarian situation in the country.

“In our opinion, the view of humanitarian issues by the United Nations should not be gendered[-based],” he said, adding: “We are extremely frightened that this path will cause the Security Council to impose more sanctions this autumn and winter with different reasons based on Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter.”

“As you will see, our stance in Doha will be based on facts and principles that are not necessarily favored by the big powers,” Qomi said, adding, “… we believe that every government should independently defend the legitimate rights of its nation based on reasonable arguments and in a responsible way in accordance with international laws and rules. This policy could have been seen by the international community during our nuclear talks when we defended our nuclear rights under the NPT. Obviously, we hope that Afghanistan will succeed in the path of legitimate defense with an independent position and playing a responsible role. That way, we will be a supporter and consultant to them [Afghans].”

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is scheduled to host a two-day meeting Monday and Tuesday in Doha, Qatar, which will bring together a number of special envoys on Afghanistan.