Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, and Amir Khan Muttaqi, foreign minister for Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government, spoke by phone recently about how to deepen bilateral cooperation and address tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan. IRNA +2 by Afghan Voice Agency
Araghchi also highlighted Iran’s dedication to regional peace, calling on neighbouring states to coordinate closer for greater stability. Tehran announced their willingness to assist in resolving Pakistan-Afghanistan conflicts as well. AVA News Agency. +1
Muttaqi expressed Kabul’s appreciation of Iran’s diplomatic efforts and expressed Afghanistan’s openness towards greater collaboration between Kabul and Tehran.
One of the central topics of discussion at IRNA was Afghanistan and Pakistan relations, where tensions have flared due to repeated cross-border clashes, accusations that militants are operating from Afghan soil into Pakistan, and trade disruptions. Pakistan has repeatedly accused Afghanistan of providing sanctuary to insurgent groups such as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants; Afghanistan denies these claims as political motivated. At Dawn on November 24th there will be another meeting of IRNA for discussion purposes between Afghanistan and Pakistan regarding this relationship and this time the debate would center around Afghanistan-Pakistan relations.
Iran has signalled its willingness to mediate between Islamabad and Kabul by offering to convene a regional meeting featuring key parties including Russia, Qatar and Turkey. Araghchi noted that several telephone consultations had already taken place, and indicated a regional forum could possibly take place within weeks. * KabulNow
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs enthusiastically accepted Iran’s offer of mediation, noting it would “not shy away” from Tehran’s role.
Dawn The Iran-Afghanistan rapprochement is driven by multiple factors. For Iran, collaboration with Kabul offers economic opportunities — including transit routes and trade links– as well as strategic influence over Central and South Asia. Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government sees strengthening relations with Iran as diversifying regional partnerships amid Western pressure and isolation, signaling their intention to strengthen bilateral ties while working towards common security and economic challenges together. Their phone call represents this move towards strengthening bilateral relationships further while signalling their willingness to work on shared challenges together.

Pakistan-Afghanistan tensions remain persistent. Their differences stem from historic grievances, security worries, refugee flows, militant control issues, transit trade issues and transit-trade restrictions imposed by Islamabad on Afghanistan. Achieve credible diplomatic breakthrough will require concrete agreements rather than mere mediation offers from Islamabad; Afghanistan’s trade shift away from Pakistan towards Iran since Islamabad implemented border closures and trade restrictions highlights how economic issues are impacting regional alliances.
Reliability remains an issue between Pakistan and Afghanistan, as Pakistani scepticism over Afghan commitments has caused it to ask for guarantee action to curtail cross-border militancy. Afghanistan insisted it shouldn’t bear sole responsibility for Pakistan’s security without reciprocal assurances in return. Compounding matters further is the internal politics between Afghanistan’s Taliban regime and Pakistani military-political establishment which complicates matters further.

Araghchi and Muttaqi’s phone call highlights two points. First, Iran has become increasingly important as an intermediary between Afghanistan and Pakistan; and secondly, an emerging nature to Iran-Afghanistan diplomacy focused not just on bilateral ties but wider regional stability. Whether this diplomatic push leads to tangible improvements — especially stabilising Pakistan-Afghanistan relations — remains to be seen; nonetheless it marks an important step toward increased regional cooperation with Iran acting as an intermediary between neighboring states needing de-escalation or coordination measures.