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DESERT FIGHTER, - your question was what influence does iran have over afghanistan, the short answer is close to nothing.
Pakistani options are huge wrt to taliban but I suspect that gone are the days when you could have complete control over taliban and assoc. For a change instead of negotiation with factions in afghanistan, why dont you actually engage the afghan government. If pakistan is able to engage India diplomatically and on occasion score points on India, which is almost 7 times bigger economy and mighter military power, Imagine what kind of influence Pakistan can have over afghans which is almost 20 times smalles in both economy, and military comparison to pakistan.
Indian options are limited, to ensure we can provide the optimal support to the fledgling government of afghanistan, we should be looking to all options to negate the oppressive regime of taliban.
1> look to Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and
Iran to facilitate medical aid, food rations, humanitarian supplies to Afghanistan.
2> Use Chabahar port for import and export of heavy machinery and old economy infrastructure goods.
3> Enter bilateral dialogue with Pakistan's civilian government to address their apprehensions about Indian influence in Afghanistan, to ensure at least the civilian government is not aligned to resurgence of Taliban in Afghanistan.
4> Increase infrastructure investment in Afghanistan, with the hopes of bringing china into the same game. Once FDI's starts in afghanistan's mineral markets, proxies of these investors will have to accommodate the new government.
My feeling is this time after the withdrawal of most of the US forces, the government will not collapse as it did in the times of najibullah. Karzai has served two terms and will be on his way out, hopefully someone like Dr Abdullah or Gen Fahim will come and into power and provide better integration to forces.
Apart from that afganistan government should seek to devote some of it's air bases to NATO/ISAF for at least the next 20 years or so, to ensure even if the writ of government in some areas is reduced due to taliban presence, still operators can keep raining havoc through drones and provide intel for both afghans and be the realtime war room training scenario for the Nato/Isaf forces for future conflicts.
Presence of even a small contingent of foreign forces, especially like US/france/UK will ensure that no country is providing overt support to taliban fighters.
India should keep continue training afghan officers, in addition India should provide maximum assistance is drafting the curriculum for the afghan civil service officers and train them in India.
thts new!
