TEHRAN — Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh has expressed satisfaction over his visit to Afghanistan, saying popular and cultural interactions are an integral part of a strategic relationship.

In a tweet on Thursday, Khatibzadeh listed his trip’s meetings, saying he met with Head of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah, the Afghan minister of information and culture, the Afghan foreign minister’s political deputy and a number of current and former officials.

He also said he did interviews with the media, met with intellectuals and paid tribute to the student martyrs of Kabul University.

According to the Foreign Ministry website, Khatibzadeh also met with former Afghan president Hamid Karzai, his counterpart in the Afghan Foreign Ministry, a number of members of the Afghan Parliament, the cultural and media elites, representatives of think tanks, president of Kabul University, and a number of faculty deans of the university.

He paid a visit to Kabul University and offered his condolences to the Afghan government, people, and families of the students who were martyred in a recent terrorist attack on the university, and laid flowers in remembrance of the martyrs.

The spokesman’s trip to Afghanistan was intended to strengthen the strategic cultural relations, arrange for the exchange of media delegations, and invite the Afghan media persons and prominent cultural and scientific figures to visit Iran.

In an interview with IRNA, Khatibzadeh accused the United States of trying to destroy Afghanistan’s legal institutions, calling on the U.S. not to follow the “scorched earth policy” in the country.

“Washington is clandestinely trying to destroy Afghanistan’s legal institutions with its irresponsible pullout to create room for its return to the country,” he said. “The U.S. is trying to leave Afghanistan in a way that once again the country gets stuck in armed conflict.”

Khatibzadeh added, “What the U.S. has done in Afghanistan is that it invaded Afghanistan, killed its people and now it leaves behind an ominous heritage by destroying its legal institutions upon leaving – hoping that one day it will return to the country. The U.S., as an invader, must follow international law and not follow the ‘scorched earth policy’ upon leaving.”

Back in October, Abdullah Abdullah traveled to Iran to seek support for the Afghan peace talks. He met with several high-ranking Iranian officials including the president, foreign minister, Parliament speaker, and secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.

“The leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran consider the success of peace in Afghanistan to be in the interest of the region and the world and they comprehensively support a peace process that is led and managed by Afghanistan,” Abdullah said during his two-day visit to Tehran.

MH/PA