mr. siddique talked about trade. i would trade on the transport. i would say that even more interesting is counterterrorism. counterterrorism is something we can all agree on and it's something that the states can and have proven being able to cooperate. and counterterrorism cooperation there's can haonfidence buildint can come up. i'm sorry i went off much more. thank you. >> no, thank you. that's fascinating. as you told me before, you had five countries not one country to cover, so you've done fairly well. if we could turn to you, please. >> good morning. yes, thank you for inviting me to speak about the interest in afghanistan. usually pakistan gets most of the attention when it comes to afghanistan, but we have to remember iran is a key player. arguably iran is the second most powerful regional country in afghanistan. and parts consider iran as the key player. iran has a lot of influence in kabul with the karzai government as well and various other actors. usually eiran's presence and influence and activities in afghanistan is portrayed as neg

mr. abubakar siddique, who is a senior correspondent of afghanistan and pakistan for radio free europe and radio central newsroom based in prague. he spent the last decade researching humanitarian and cultural issues. in pakistan and afghanistan and, most importantly, in the bordering region of fatah. and he co-authored a book with mr. reuben, one of the earlier analysis of the pakistan/afghanistan dynamic when it came to peace in afghanistan. he'll be followed by shahrbanou tadjbakhsh who directs and teaches a program on human security as part of the masters in political affairs at sciences in paris. she is also a research associate with the peace research institute of oslo and is doing some very interesting research on regional conflicts in afghanistan and the central asian regional security complex as a whole and this would be very interesting, has written extensively, has also spent time with the u.n. in a previous life. mr. alireza nader will be our speaker of the day. he's based at the rand corporation as a senior international policy analyst and was a lead co-author of "coping with