IRAN: Iranian President Ahmadinejad heads to Central Asia for regional security meeting

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad heads to Central Asia for a summit aimed at fighting terrorism and strengthening regional security. Ahmadinejad is also due to visit Afghanistan where he will be holding talks with his counterpart Hamid Karzai. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad left Tehran on Tuesday (August 14) for visits to Central Asia. First stop is Afghanistan where he will be holding a dialogue on security with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Border security and the plight of Afghan refugees still living in Iran are the main issues expected to be discussed in the meeting. Iran has deported 160,000 Afghans it says were living illegally in the country since April, but the pace of expulsions has slowed "drastically" to around a thousand in the last few days. Despite Afghanistan's appeals to stem the tide, Iran launched a major campaign on April 21 to round up illegal Afghan workers and bus them back to their war-ravaged homeland. They are estimated to number around 1 million people. Next stop is Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, then Kyrgyzstan where Iran is sitting as a special guest in a summit aimed at fighting terrorism and Islamic extremism in Central Asia. "We are going to attend in Shanghai summit (in Kyrgyzstan) and we will have discussions with officials attending this summit to increase regional commitment," Ahmadinejad told reporters prior to his departure. On hand to see Ahmadinejad off were Iranian officials which included the country's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.

ITN Source | August 14, 2007

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