Abdullah Thanks Iran for Letting Afghan Children Get Schooling

In an interview with the Tasnim News Agency in Tehran, Abdullah hailed the decision to give the Afghan children the opportunity to go to school in Iran as a “historic measure.”

“We are grateful”, he noted, adding that Ayatollah Khamenei’s order has let around 50,000 Afghan students have the opportunity to educate in Iran.

Abdullah, who was in an official visit to Tehran in January, noted that he has held talks with the Iranian officials on the issues pertaining to the Afghan migrants, including the extension of their residence permits in Iran.

Ayatollah Khamenei had already issued an order stressing that all Afghan children, even children of the undocumented migrants living in the country illegally, have the right to register and study in Iran’s schools.

As regards the process of Afghanistan’s peace talks with the Taliban, Abdullah said the government is determined to protect the Afghan people.

“We will take steps decisively and sincerely in order to fulfill the wishes of (Afghan) people, which is establishment of sustainable peace,” he said of the peace talks.

Earlier this month, senior diplomats from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the US met in Islamabad to try to lay the groundwork for a new round of peace talks with the Taliban.

The push for new talks has taken on urgency in recent months, as aggressive Taliban offensives have been seizing large sections of Afghan territory.