Unauthorized Visits Insult Regional Countries

Ayatollah Khamenei on Trump’s Trip to Afghanistan

In reaction to the U.S. President’s sudden visit to Afghanistan, Leader of the Islamic Revolution underscored in his official tweeter account that such moves are nothing but insulting other nations’ independence and freedom.

TEHRAN (Kayhan Intl.) – Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has criticized visits by U.S. leaders to Iraq and Afghanistan without the permission of their governments, saying the unauthorized visits are an insult to the regional countries.
The Leader’s remarks in a tweet published on his official website on Thursday came after U.S. President Donald Trump paid an unannounced visit to American troops in Afghanistan on Thursday.
"Americans come and enter a country like Iraq without any permission, do not visit the country’s government, do not go to the country’s capital; they have bases there, and just go to their own base,” Ayatollah Khamenei's tweet said.
"This means they officially insult the freedom of nations and the independence of nation,” the tweet added.
Trump’s unannounced visit to Iraq last December Trump’s unannounced visit to Iraq unleashed a wave of condemnations from the Arab country’s political and military leaders, with some of them demanding the expulsion of American forces.
On his first visit to a war zone as president, Trump spent a few hours at Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq’s western Anbar province but did not visit Baghdad.
On Wednesday, Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to the former Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in the early 1980s, recalling that the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini had ordered the Iranian government to summon the Soviet ambassador.
"At that time, the world said ‘you are countering the United States, do not confront the USSR for now’, but the Imam did not accept such a point of view,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.
Trump landed at the U.S. base in Bagram on Thursday and served Thanksgiving dinner to American troops before meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
During the visit, the U.S. president claimed the Taliban militant group had accepted a ceasefire to facilitate talks with Washington.
"The Taliban wants to make a deal and we're meeting with them and we're saying it has to be a cease fire," the U.S. president, on his first trip to the war-torn country, told reporters. "We are talking to the Taliban,” Trump said.
The Taliban, however, rejected Trump’s claims on Friday. "It is way too early to talk about the resumption of talks for now. We will give our official reaction later," Taliban official spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
There are some 13,000 U.S. troops still deployed to Afghanistan, 18 years after the United States invaded the country over the 9/11 attacks. Trump claimed he planned to reduce the number to 8,600.
Trump said other U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan until a peace deal is made or a total victory is achieved.
Washington wants the Taliban to stop attacking its forces in Afghanistan under a peace deal, but the militants want American forces to leave the country once and for all.
Trump’s sudden announcement on peace talks came at a critical moment in the United States’ long, drawn-out military venture in Afghanistan, a time when Americans are increasingly tired of the military intervention.
The U.S. invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 under the pretext of eliminating the Taliban militant group. Eighteen years on, the Taliban are more powerful than ever and dictating their terms on Washington.