Iranian foreign minister heads to Istanbul

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi left for Turkey on Wednesday to attend Istanbul Meeting on peace process in Afghanistan. Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul will chair the meeting in which Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is present too, Iranian news agency (IRNA) reported Wednesday. Delegations from Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, China, Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Britain, France, Germany and Australia are attending the meeting. It is supposed that the process of giving security responsibility to 17 Afghan provinces from NATO forces be discussed at the meeting. President Karzai is to declare the exact time for giving the second round of security responsibility to Afghan forces as well as areas in which the process will be implemented. The first round of giving security responsibility to Afghan forces completed three months ago. NATO has declared that all responsibilities will be given to Afghan forces until the end of 2014.