US to attend Afghan meeting in Russia - Iran expected to attend

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43 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration has accepted an invitation to attend a Russian-hosted conference on Afghanistan next week at which Iran is also expected to participate.

The State Department said Thursday that it would send a senior diplomat to a special conference of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization being held in Moscow on March 27 to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. Patrick Moon, the principal deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia affairs, will attend, it said.

The United States is not a member of, nor an official observer to, the organization, but it is among several NATO and G-8 countries that were invited as guests, department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters. Iran is an observer and is expected to send a delegation, but Wood said Moon had no plans to meet with the Iranian delegation.

"The reason why we think it's important to go to this conference is that it's about Afghanistan and how the international community can try to better the situation on the ground, better coordinate activities (and) see what types of things we can do together to help make things better for the people of Afghanistan," Wood said.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization includes Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan as members. Along with Iran, India, Mongolia and Pakistan are observers.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jIOZOdb-UggJ3VV6r837YtKHmsIwD9718LE03

I'm interested in the outcome of this conference because I'm convinced that China, Russia, and their trading partner, Iran, are indispensable to a 'stable' Afghanistan in the future. It's interesting to see the U.S. attend this conference because the SCO is usually acting outside of American interests. I can only conclude from the willingness to engage at this meeting that the U.S. also views these nations as indispensable to Afghanistan's future.

[LakeSamish706]

1. I'm pleased that President Obama is talking to countries like Iran....

As has been stated all along, neither Afghanistan or Iraq can be solved by military might alone....

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2. I agree

It's a welcome change to see our foreign policy advance without all of the ideological roadblocks.

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3. .

[spanone]

4. good....it's better than lobbing bombs at each other