Iran holds separate talks with Afghan Taliban

Iran has met with the Afghan Taliban, a top Iranian security official said Wednesday according to the Tasnim news agency, just days after the militants attended reconciliation talks in the UAE.

Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, made the announcement while on a visit to the Afghan capital Kabul, several Iranian agencies reported.

"The Afghan government has been informed of the communications and talks carried out with the Taliban, and this process will continue," Shamkhani said.

No details on where the talks took place were given by the news agency, which is considered close to Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

"The Islamic Republic has always been one of the primary pillars of stability in the region and cooperation between the two countries will certainly help in fixing Afghanistan's security issues of today," he said.

Abas Aslani, a reporter for Tasnim, tweeted that it was the first time talks had been confirmed between Iran and the Taliban.

The announcement follows reconciliation talks last week between the United States and Taliban officials in the United Arab Emirates.

The Taliban said they also held meetings with officials from the UAE, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, but the militants refused to meet a delegation from Afghanistan.

The renewed diplomatic efforts come as Washington seeks a way out of the 17-year conflict.

Iran and Afghanistan share a nearly 600-mile border and have had a complex relationship in recent years.

Tehran has long supported its co-religionists in Afghanistan, the Shia Hazara minority, who were violently persecuted by the Taliban during its rule in the 1990s.

Iran worked alongside the United States and Western powers to help drive out the Taliban after the US-led invasion in 2001.

But there have been allegations, from Western and Afghan sources, that Iran's Revolutionary Guards have in recent years established ties with the Taliban aimed at driving out US forces from Afghanistan.

Tehran welcomed Trump's announcement that he was withdrawing all US forces from Syria last week, but has not commented on the reduction in Afghanistan.

The Taliban, meanwhile, has made significant territorial gains this year as its fighters inflict record casualties on government forces.