U.S. and Iranian diplomats took baby steps toward thawing tensions between their countries Tuesday, at an international conference on Afghanistan put together by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In a significant move, Iran's deputy foreign minister, while criticizing U.S. plans to send more troops into Afghanistan, said Iran is "fully prepared" to help fight the drug trade in Afghanistan -- a campaign the U.S. wants to escalate.
The U.S. is planning to send of surge of narcotics agents into Afghanistan to help stem the opium trade, which is a goal Iran shares.
Iran's Mehdi Akhundzadeh also met with Richard Holbrooke, Clinton's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the sidelines of the conference, held at The Hague in the Netherlands.
Holbrooke's meeting "did not focus on anything substantive. It was cordial, it was unplanned and they agreed to stay in touch," Clinton told reporters as the day-long conference was winding down.
The gathering was being closely watched for signs that the U.S. and Iran can work together on a common problem after years of hostility. The two countries cooperated in 2001 and 2002 after U.S.-led forces ousted Afghanistan's Taliban government.
But relations were frozen during the administration of George W. Bush, who referred to Iran as part of the "axis of evil," although Bush's former Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell had informal contacts with Iranian foreign ministers.
Washington broke diplomatic ties with Tehran after the U.S. Embassy was overrun and diplomats taken hostage during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which brought to power a government of Islamic clerics.
At the Afghan meeting, Iran highlighted its history of helping Afghanistan with cash and infrastructure development and by sheltering 3 million Afghan refugees. The two countries share a 600-mile border.
Akhundzadeh signaled his country is open to cooperating with the U.S. on certain fronts.
"Iran is fully prepared to participate in the projects aimed at combating drug trafficking and the plans in line with developing and reconstructing Afghanistan," Akhundzadeh said.
However, Iran was critical of President Obama's plan to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, saying those funds instead should be redirected to building Afghanistan's own forces.
"The presence of foreign forces has not improved things in the country, and it seems than an increase in the number of foreign forces will prove ineffective, too," Akhundzadeh said.
Meanwhile, Clinton said she also sent Iran a direct letter concerning three U.S. citizens unable to return from Iran: Robert Levinson, Roxana Saberi and Esha Momeni. Their return would be a humanitarian gesture, the letter said. Normally, U.S.-Iran contacts are conducting through Swiss intermediaries.
A State Department official at The Hague told FOX News the letter was not signed by Clinton and was delivered to "a representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran."
The official could not confirm how it was delivered and by whom, but said it was not delivered by Holbrooke.
An excerpt from the letter, obtained by FOX News, states that the return of the three citizens "would certainly constitute a humanitarian gesture by the Islamic Republic of Iran in keeping with the spirit of renewal and generosity that marks the Persian new year."
Ex-FBI agent Levinson vanished after visiting an island off the coast of Iran two years ago.
Saberi is an American Iranian freelance journalist who has been detained in Iran since January, allegedly for outdated visa credentials. Momeni is an Iranian-American graduate student who was staying in Tehran to work on her master's thesis on the Iranian women's movement. She was arrested in October for allegedly passing another vehicle while driving.
The rare diplomatic overture to Iran Tuesday comes two weeks after Obama reached out to the Iranian people and marked the Iranian new year in a Nowruz video message.
And the Holbrooke-Akhundzadeh meeting was foreshadowed by a handshake at the conference between another state department official, Patrick Moon, and the Iran deputy foreign minister.
The U.S. and Iran were among more than 80 countries summoned at the initiative of the United States to focus on Afghanistan. It comes days after Obama unveiled a revamped U.S. policy calling for another 17,000 troops, 4,000 military trainers for Afghan security forces, and hundreds of civilians to assist in Afghanistan's development.
Both Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Clinton said Afghanistan would welcome Taliban fighters who embrace peace, reject Al Qaeda and pledge to abide by the Afghan constitution.
Clinton said most Taliban fighters have allied with anti-government forces "out of desperation" rather than commitment, in a country that has barely made inroads against poverty and lack of development.
"They should be offered an honorable form of reconciliation and reintegration into a peaceful society, if they are willing to abandon violence, break with Al Qaeda, and support the constitution," Clinton said.
The United States is starting cautiously down a path in Afghanistan that proved helpful in Iraq, where former insurgents joined forces with U.S. troops and a U.S.-backed government.
Clinton did not mention Iran during her address to the conference but has expressed a hope that Iran and the U.S. could find some common ground on Afghanistan, notably on combating narco-terrorism and on border control issues.
"The range of countries and institutions that are represented here shows the universal recognition that what happens in Afghanistan matters to us all," Clinton told the gathering.
Although the conference was devoted to Afghanistan, Clinton said it should also focus attention on the lawless border regions of Pakistan that provide a safe haven for the insurgents.
"Our partnership with democratic Pakistan is crucial. Together, we must give Pakistan the tools it needs to fight these extremists," Clinton said.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, however, warned against interfering in his country. A regional approach to Afghanistan must include "respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference," he said.
Akhundzadeh, too, cautioned against losing sight of the conference's objectives of providing security and reconstruction for Afghanistan, and urged countries to "refrain from any kind of deviation from this motto."
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