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Britain said it was "inexplicable" that Iran had chosen not to
attend an international conference on Afghanistan Thursday considering
it had raised concerns about its neighbour's instability.

Neither
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki nor his ambassador to London
attended the meeting, where nearly 70 countries agreed Afghans should
assume more security responsibility and pursue reconciliation with the
Taliban.

"We meant it when we said that we thought Iran should
attend and play a positive role in this conference," British Foreign
Secretary David Miliband told reporters.

"They have said before that they want to play a positive role in promoting stability in Afghanistan."

"I
think it is very important in international relations that countries
say what they mean and mean what they say," Miliband said.

Iran's
absence was all the more surprising since Mottaki had raised the
concerns about the "damage and danger" that instability in Afghanistan
and its large trade in heroin and opium posed for his country, Miliband
said.

The failure of Iran to attend the meeting "means that many
countries in the region and beyond will draw their own conclusions
about the dissonance between the words and deeds."

Iran said
Wednesday it would not attend the meeting bec... >>>