Iran's envoy to Afghanistan has dismissed recent claims by some Afghan lawmakers and media outlets that accused Iran of seeking to sway the Afghan Senate in an attempt to prevent the approval of the country's recent strategic cooperation pact with the US.
The first counselor of the Islamic Republic of Iran embassy in capital Kabul was summoned by the Afghan foreign affairs ministry on Tuesday because Iranian ambassador's statements about the U.S. and Afghanistan security pact.
Iran's Ambassador to Kabul Abolfazl Zohrevand on Tuesday rejected the allegations and said, "Such propaganda is spread by the Americans and those who advocate this agreement."
Since Monday, a number of Afghan Senate members and media outlets have claimed that Zohrevand met Afghan Senate Chairman Fazal Hadi Muslimyar to urge the upper house of the Afghan parliament not to approve the cooperation agreement.
"At that meeting, we merely conveyed Iran's concern over the strategic pact with the US to the Afghan officials," Zohrevand added.
"We noted that Afghanistan, as an independent country, is at liberty to have any agreement with any country," the Iranian envoy pointed out.
Shortly after arriving in the war-torn country in an unannounced trip late on the night of May 1, US President Barack Obama met Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and both signed the deal that authorizes the presence of US troops for a period of 10 years after 2014, which was the original date agreed upon for the departure of all foreign combat troops from Afghanistan.
The strategic pact must be approved by the Afghan and US legislatures before it can come into force.
Moreover, some Afghan political groups and parties have already expressed their opposition to the agreement, saying it will not bring peace to Afghanistan.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Saturday that the pact cannot resolve Afghanistan's security problems, and it will further destabilize the country and increase insecurity.