On Saturday, the US and the Taliban clinched a landmark peace agreement in Doha, which stipulates the complete withdrawal of US and NATO forces from Afghanistan over a 14 month period, including cutting troop numbers to 8,600 within 135 days.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday that the US “has no legal position to sign a peace deal [with the Taliban] or to decide the future situation of Afghanistan”.
The Ministry underscored that they welcome “any development that would contribute to peace and stability” in the South Asian country, but that it can only be achieved through domestic talks and by heeding “the considerations of Afghanistan's neighbouring countries”.
Iran “believes the presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan is illegal and is one of the key contributors to war and insecurity in the country”, the Ministry pointed out, adding that they consider the US' moves “an effort to legitimise” the deployment of its troops in the South Asian nation.
The statement came after former National Security Adviser John Bolton asserted on his Twitter page that the US-Taliban peace deal poses an “unacceptable risk to America's civilian population”, slamming the document as “an Obama-style deal”.
“Legitimising Taliban sends the wrong signal to ISIS [Daesh*] and al-Qaeda* terrorists, and to America's enemies generally”, he tweeted on Saturday.
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