Tehran: (By Manish Rai) A high-level Taliban delegation arrived in the Iranian capital Tehran on Tuesday for talks with Iranian officials on the peace process in war-torn Afghanistan. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the visit of the delegation, led by the Taliban deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, comes upon an invitation from Tehran.

Taliban spokesman Dr Mohammad Naeem confirmed the delegation visit through the audio messages sent to the journalists. He said that the Taliban delegation has met with Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. Dr Naeem said that relations between Tehran and Kabul, issues related to Afghan refugees in Iran, and the prevailing political and security situation of Afghanistan and the region at large is being discussed in the visit.

It should be noted that recently Iran has increased its contact with the Taliban once its staunch enemy. Iran and the Taliban nearly came to the brink of war when the Taliban kidnapped and later killed nine Iranian Diplomats in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in the year 1998. But it seems that Iran has forgotten its old enmity with the Taliban and has no issues working with the group which was removed from power with Iranian help. That’s is most probably because as of now Iranian mullahs and Taliban share animosity toward the United States.