Saturday, 14 August 2021 (YJC)_The Foreign Ministry of Iran stressed the need to ensure the safety of civilians and diplomats in Afghanistan amid the escalation of violence and after the Taliban captured Herat, Afghanistan’s third-largest city.
In a statement released on Friday, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh expressed Iran’s concern about the intensification of violence in Afghanistan and about the conditions of Afghan people and displaced persons.
He also stressed the need to protect the lives of people and civilians amid the chaotic situation in Afghanistan.
Pointing to the Taliban’s control over Herat, the Iranian spokesman called on them to pay serious attention to ensuring the full security and health of diplomats and diplomatic missions in the city.
Khatibzadeh finally noted that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran is in constant contact with the country’s consulate general in Herat to make sure about the safety of the Iranian diplomats in that mission.
The Taliban is now in control of Herat, Afghanistan’s third-largest city and a strategic provincial capital in the country’s west, hours after it seized Ghazni, while intense fighting rages between the armed fighters and government forces in Kandahar city.
Herat’s fall on Thursday marked the biggest prize yet for the Taliban, who have taken 11 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals as part of a weeklong blitz, leaving the capital Kabul increasingly isolated.