| Summary/Abstract |
Although some Middle Eastern countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey, have tried to influence developments in Afghanistan from time to time, Iran—due to a long common history, geographic proximity, and cultural similarities—is by far Afghanistan's most important neighbor. In this article I seek to demonstrate that Iran, contrary to its image and often even more consistently than pro-Western countries such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey, has since 1979 acted in favor of an independent, centrally and moderately governed Afghanistan. Therefore, Iran will probably also be a stabilizing factor rather than a spoiler in every post–International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) scenario in Kabul.
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