Tehran
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has vowed support for the new, U.S.-backed government of Afghanistan. On a visit to Kabul this week, Khatami met with President Hamid Karzai as well as warlord Ismail Khan, who controls the Afghan province neighboring Iran. The two countries have much to discuss. Iran was a bitter enemy of the Taliban and expects to enjoy warmer relations with the new regime. It also wants to repatriate more than 1 million Afghan refugees who fled the brutal Taliban regime several years ago and have been living in camps since then. Al Qaida fugitives are a separate problem. Khatami said Iran would not harbor them, and Saudi Arabia said that Iran recently extradited 16 Saudi members of al Qaida. But U.S. terror experts said hundreds more remain in Iran.
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