Taliban FM visits Iran in first trip
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Taliban's foreign minister traveled to Iran on Saturday to discuss Afghan refugees and a growing economic crisis.
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Afghanistan's acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi (Reuters)
The Taliban's foreign minister visited Iran for the first time since the hasty US withdrawal from Afghanistan, to discuss refugees and the country's growing economic crisis.
Iran, like other countries, has so far not recognized the new government formed by the Taliban.
"The visit aims at discussions on political, economic, transit, and refugee issues between Afghanistan and Iran," the Taliban foreign ministry spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi said on Twitter.
At the invitation of Iran, a senior delegation led by the Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi left for Iran today. pic.twitter.com/hroHIlbZfO
— Abdul Qahar Balkhi (@QaharBalkhi) January 8, 2022
The Taliban delegation, led by Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, has already held a preliminary meeting with Iranian officials, he added.
On his account, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh told a news conference earlier this week that "today, we are basically not at the point of recognizing."
A worsening economic situation
It is worth mentioning that Taliban has recently banned the use of foreign currencies in Afghanistan, describing the economic situation as "bad."
The Taliban government was denied access to the foreign reserves the past government had accumulated, including nearly $10 billion in the US for the Afghan Central Bank.
On September 15, the Afghan Central Bank announced the recovery of $12.3 million from former government officials, a month after the Taliban movement, which denounced the corruption of the former regime and called for transparency, seized power in the country.
![In a 2021 interview with Frontline by former US special representative James Jeffrey, he says he had "engaged with [HTS] via backchannels while serving in President Trump’s State Department. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)](https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2024/12/21/b4a69f2e-8682-43e4-9d37-49482b304ab3/3.png?v=2&format=webp "In a 2021 interview with Frontline by former US special representative James Jeffrey, he says he had \"engaged with [HTS] via backchannels while serving in President Trump’s State Department. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)")
