Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Monday the United States' "military failure" in Afghanistan offered an opportunity to establish lasting peace in the country.

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Taliban insurgents took control of the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday following a rout of the US-backed Afghan army as foreign forces withdrew from Afghanistan.

Washington has accused Iran in the past of providing covert aid to Taliban fighters against US forces. Tehran, which supports an inclusive Afghan government that would include all ethnic groups and sects, has denied this.

"America's military defeat and its withdrawal must become an opportunity to restore life, security and durable peace in Afghanistan," Iran's state TV quoted Raisi as saying.

"Iran backs efforts to restore stability in Afghanistan and, as a neighboring and brother nation, Iran invites all groups in Afghanistan to reach a national agreement."

Shiite Muslim Iran has been a foe of the hardline Sunni Muslim Taliban for decades, but for the past few years it has been openly meeting Taliban leaders. In July, Tehran hosted a meeting of then Afghan government representatives and a high-level Taliban political committee.

Oil-producing Iran, a destination for Afghans seeking work or fleeing war, said on Sunday it had prepared accommodation in three provinces to provide temporary refuge to Afghans fleeing their country.

But with its economy stifled by US sanctions, Iran has encouraged many of the more than 2 million undocumented and over 800,000 registered Afghan refugees in the Islamic Republic to return home.

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The 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, which killed 2,977 people and wounded over 6,000 more, changed the US, the world of air travel, Afghanistan, and the Middle East.

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It's been 20 years, and US President Joe Biden is completing the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan that his predecessor Donald Trump began. But the move leave the Afghan government helpless against the Taliban.

As Taliban forces march across the country, seizing one provincial capital after another, it appears that a restoration of the hardline Islamist group's Sharia law is not a question of "if," but "when." As of Friday morning, the Taliban were in control of most of the territory in Afghanistan, and it is not impossible that the country will once again become fertile ground for international terrorist groups like al-Qaida.

A senior Afghan government official spoke to Israel Hayom this week from Kabul.

"We expected an American withdrawal at a certain stage and there is no military solution to the war in Afghanistan, but we and the citizens of Afghanistan thought that the US would leave after an agreement was signed with the Taliban," the official said.

"The agreement, which could have included contact with the government of Afghanistan and led to international consensus, since international players like Pakistan and Iran are playing a negative role in supporting the Taliban," the official continued.

Iran indeed has its fingers in the Afghan pie. Lt. Col. Michael Segal, former head of the Iran bureau at the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate's research division and now a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, recently published an article in which he presented different examples of how Iran was moving closer to the Taliban. Iran's Tasnim news agency, associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, has taken a very moderate stance on the Taliban, even interviewing its spokesman. The Kayhan newspaper, which reflects the opinions of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, played down the horrific acts committed by Taliban insurgents, and Iranian MP Ahmad Naderi has referred to the Taliban as "the noble movement" in the region and said that cooperating with it could promote stability in Afghan society and prevent groups such as Islamic State from penetrating the country.

"Iran is playing a suspicious role in Afghanistan," the Kabul official says. "Officially, Iran has normal relations with us. On the other hand, they are also in contact with the Taliban. For example, the reports about a Taliban office being opened in Mashhad. The Iranians also supplied them with weapons."

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Apart from that, Iran's support for terrorist organizations that are not part of the Shiite axis is now an open secret after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif hosted senior Taliban officials in Tehran. Even before that, al-Qaida no. 2 Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah was killed in the heart of Tehran in an action attributed to Israel.

Meanwhile, the Taliban are exploiting the vacuum that the US has created by withdrawing, one province at a time. Some claim that as much as 85-90% of Afghanistan is already in Taliban hands.

"Afghanistan is not the country it was in the 1990s," the Kabul official says. "Sixty-five percent of the population are under age 25."

Q: Are you afraid?

"Unfortunately, the young generation is watching the Taliban's horrific acts. There is concern that another escalation will make the already problematic situation worse, but we are hopeful that we will be able to make peace in Afghanistan."

Q: What is your position on establishing diplomatic relations with Israel?

"The government of Afghanistan has not made any statement about the Abraham Accords. It depends on how the other countries behave toward Israel. All eyes are on developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Another important factor is how the international community deals with the extremists.

"Aside from these points, there is no reason why Afghanistan and Israel shouldn't have diplomatic relations. Afghanistan was home to large Jewish communities in Herat and Kabul."

Q: What message do you want to send to Israel?

"The two countries have much to gain from normalizing relations, since we all want to live in peace and do not accept radicals."

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The fierce fighting killed more than 50 fighters on both sides, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It also underscored that Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces will face a long, hard fight as they try to chip away at the last rebel-held territory.

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The counterattacks began early in the morning and government forces called in Syria's air force to repel them, the Observatory said. It said that 29 Syrian troops and pro-government gunmen were killed, as well as 23 insurgents.

The insurgents captured two villages, Salloumieh and Abu Omar, and pushed into the nearby village of Sham al-Hawa, it said.

The Ibaa media outlet of the al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist group said its fighters were attacking Syrian positions east of Khan Sheikhoun, a major town that was held by rebels until they lost it last week.

Pro-government activists said on social media that Syrian troops and pro-government gunmen are repelling the attack.

Syrian government forces captured wide areas from insurgents over the past weeks in an offensive that began on April 30. The areas taken include all rebel-held parts of Hama province as well as villages on the southern edge of Idlib, the last remaining rebel stronghold in Syria.

Tuesday's clashes came after Syrian warplanes pounded the rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan and nearby villages over the past two days – their likely next target for a takeover.

Maaret al-Numan, like Khan Sheikhoun, sits on the highway linking Damascus with the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest. Government forces are trying to eventually open that highway.

Taher al-Omar, a citizen journalist with the al-Qaida-linked militants, wrote on social media that they have carried out several suicide attacks so far.

The months of fighting have displaced more than half a million civilians toward northern parts of Idlib, already home to some 3 million people, according to UN humanitarian officials.

Elsewhere in northern Syria, a bomb exploded on a minibus, killing two people and wounding nine near the town of Azaz. The town is controlled by Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition fighters, according to pro-government media and the Azaz media center, an activist collective.

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State TV said the shelling on Sunday had caused widespread material damage to the town of Suqailabiyah.

State news agency SANA said Syrian troops have retaliated by firing shells toward insurgents' positions on the southern edge of Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold in the country. Al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is the main insurgent group in the area.

The enclave has been rocked by a wave of violence since April 30, killing and wounding dozens while forcing some 150,000 people to flee their homes in rebel-held areas.

Syrian troops have been on the offensive under the cover of airstrikes for days, capturing several strategic locations and villages.

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