Iran opposes foreign military presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014

Iran turns against any forms of foreign military presence on the soil of its neighboring Afghanistan, the Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Monday. "Certain Western countries seek to extend their military presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014 by maintaining their military bases there. We deem such an approach contradictory to the efforts toward sustaining stability and security in Afghanistan." Salehi said in a speech at the ongoing international conference on Afghanistan in the western German city of Bonn. "We believe that any international or regional initiative to restore peace and security in Afghanistan could only be successful if they give up the presence of foreign military forces and especially, the founding of foreign military bases in Afghanistan," he said. Salehi also said Iran condemned the frequent attacks on the civilian target by the military insurgents in Afghanistan, citing those kind of violent assaults on the ordinary resident has violated the basic human rights. It has been widely speculated that the current Afghan government could hardly stand on its own strength had it not been for the large scale military support and massive economic aids from the western alliances. The Taliban insurgency in the past decade still pose great threat, while the situations could be exacerbated after the mandatory pullout of foreign troops by the end of 2014. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has pledged to continue support for the Afghans, saying the international community has "much to lose if the country again becomes a source of terrorism and instability," arousing the speculations the military aids and supports from the United States and its western alliance would still continue to stay in Afghanistan in a long course ahead.