The US welcomes Iran's participation in talks over the increasing international cooperation in Afghanistan, due to take place in the Netherlands. Following Iran's Foreign Ministry announcement on Thursday that Iran's delegation would join a conference on Afghanistan in the Netherlands on March 31, the US State Department said in a statement that Iran's presence was 'a welcomed move'. "We do want this conference to be a regional conference. A regional conference would be incomplete without Iran," US State Department spokesman, Gordon Duguid, said on Thursday. With the Taliban stepping up its insurgency and the deterioration of security conditions in Afghanistan in the last two years, the United States is intent on a conference that can strengthen international cooperation in the war-torn country. The US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, will attend the meeting at The Hague as the head of the US delegation. Richard Holbrooke, the special US envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan will also attend the meeting. Meanwhile, Clinton has rejected any plans for 'substantive' bilateral talks with Iranian officials on the sidelines of the conference. ZM/SME/MMA
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