Ahmadinejad visit to Afghanistan

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Afghanistan, the Mehr news agency reported Sunday.

Ahmadinejad will start the one-day visit on Monday and confer with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai on bilateral and international issues, the report said.

Afghanistan is one of the few countries where Iran and its arch-foe the United States have common interests, and common enemies such as the Taliban Islamists. Both sides also support the government of Karzai.

The Iranian president has often said the dilemma in Afghanistan could not be solved by military means.

Ahmadinejad said that instead of waging war, the West should have invested a very small part of its military budgets to create jobs for the 25 million people in Afghanistan.