An international “Contact Group” of dozens of countries and global organizations has been created to support the shift from an Afghan war strategy to an Afghan peace strategy.
As previously reported on Change.org, this momentous event in the progress of peace in Afghanistan has already been diligently underway for months, but has left observers very confused.
No one is clear about what a “Contact Group” actually is or does, but among its members are United Nations, the European Union member-states and NATO. Having more countries and their resources invested in the peace process will hopefully help it along, but too many cooks in the kitchen can also become a hindrance.
There are a couple of surprise invitees in the group. One is the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), which rarely makes the Western press despite representing more than 50 nations and promoting Muslim solidarity worldwide. The OIC wasn’t present at the first Contact Group meeting held in Rome last week.
The second invitee, however, was. That country is Iran.

