Iran is willing to train and arm more Afghans to fight Daesh (ISIS) if the Afghan government allows, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said in an interview with TOLOnews. He also disclosed that around 2000 Afghan militias, trained by Iran, were fighting in Syria.

He, however, said the Afghan militias went there voluntarily, based on their belief, to fight ISIS. They helped anti-Daesh fronts there in Syria and erected the flag of the Afghan republic and photos of President Ashraf Ghani at their outposts, he added.

Around 5000 Afghan refugees who were trained and armed in Iran went to Syria, and 3000 of them have returned back and joined normal life, Zarif said based on his rough estimate.

As the security situation in Afghanistan deteriorates, Iran as the next-door neighbour of Afghanistan, faces the challenge of the emergence of ISIS in its backyard, along with other challenges like drug smuggling and a possible influx of refugees into Iran.

It is to be noted here that in the late 90s Iran, along with India and Russia, had backed anti-Taliban groups, mostly minority Shia Hazaras and later the norther Alliance, to fight against the Taliban. In 1998, Iran was on the verge of invading Afghanistan to punish the Taliban when the latter had killed eight Iranian diplomats in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

When asked if he has forgiven the Taliban for the incident as Iran has a transactional relationship with the insurgent group, Zarif replied, “Neither did we forgive (Taliban) nor did we forget it, it is a pain we tolerated for the sake of Afghan people (by not attacking).”

On his transactional relationship with the insurgent group, he said, the Afghan government doesn’t have control over all the border areas (with Iran), and Iran has to defend its people. Zarif, however, added that they have taken the Afghan government in confidence regarding their relationship with the Taliban.

Clearing his position on the Afghan peace process, he said that Afghan people, including the Taliban, should decide their future. But he criticized the US decision of bypassing the Afghan government to cut the deal ( the US-Taliban agreement ) with an insurgent group and imposing its decision of Afghanistan on its people.

In his interview with TOLOnews,  Zarif said groups like ISIS, al-Qaeda, and the Taliban movement have “exploited the presence of the US troops in the region,” and foreign troops presence has not contributed in stabilizing the region. He called the US policy a "dangerous act" the one not in favour of the Afghan people.

However, on the question of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Zarif put a caveat, saying it should be “lawful, responsible and on-demand of Afghan people.”

"Taliban should be a part of the future solution, but should not itself become the future of Afghanistan. The Taliban is a reality, along with the gains of the last 19 years ( of the Afghan republic)," Zarif said on the role of the Taliban in the future.