Iran agreed on Tuesday to U.S. pleas to help fight drugs trafficking in Afghanistan, joining U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the first time at an international meeting in the Hague.
Iran's deputy foreign minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh, however, also took a swipe at Washington and reaffirmed his country's rejection of foreign troops in Afghanistan.
"The presence of foreign forces has not improved things in the country and it seems that an increase in the number of foreign forces will prove ineffective too," Akhoundzadeh said at the international meeting on Afghanistan.
"Iran is fully prepared to participate in the projects aimed at combating drug trafficking and the plans in line with developing and reconstructing Afghanistan," he said.
Clinton, without mentioning Iran's name, called for all of Afghanistan's neighbours to play a constructive role in stabilising the country as the United States rolls out its new strategy to win the war there.
"Just as these problems cannot be solved without the Afghan people, they cannot be solved without the help of Afghanistan's neighbours," she said.
"Trafficking in narcotics, the spread of violent extremism, economic stagnation, water management, electrification, and irrigation are regional challenges that will require regional solutions," she added.
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Clinton had played down any major overtures with Iran at the Hague meeting and said beforehand she had no plans for a separate meeting with its deputy foreign minister.
U.S. officials said they did not know whether the two had exchanged pleasantries, as is customary at international meetings, but they were expected to attend the same luncheon.
The two were seated alphabetically at a horseshoe-shaped table arrangement in the meeting room when they made their speeches.
Despite his rejection of foreign troops, the Iranian's speech struck a less combative tone than previous addresses by Iranians at similar conferences where the Bush administration attended in recent years.
The Obama administration has said it wants better ties with Tehran and President Barack Obama released a video message this month to Iran's leaders and its people, urging a "new beginning".
Obama is also considering a personal letter to Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei but U.S. officials say no decision had been taken yet on the content or when to send it.
Iran, so far, has given a guarded response to Obama's overtures, with Khamenei telling Washington to change its own behaviour by lifting "oppressive sanctions" imposed over its nuclear programme which the West says is a cover for building an atomic bomb.
Clinton has said repeatedly that the United States is prepared to impose more punitive measures on Iran as long as it refuses to give up sensitive nuclear work.
Asked by reporters traveling with her whether Washington would continue to pile on sanctions while at the same time seeking to engage Iran, Clinton avoided the question.
The Obama administration is reviewing the policies of the United States towards Iran and one change is likely to be a relaxation of restrictions on any "substantive" contacts with the Iranians.
The United States cut off diplomatic ties with Tehran during the 1979-1981 hostage crisis, in which a group of militant Iranian students held 52 U.S. diplomats hostage at the American embassy for 444 days.
