KABUL, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) — Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and the U.S.-led coalition forces during an hours-long operation killed nearly three dozen Taliban fighters Saturday in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator and secretary of Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Larijani has resigned from his post, Iranian Government Spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said here on Saturday.

Undersecretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said Tehran would introduce in next two days the person who should replace Ali Larijani in the Islamic Republic’s nuclear negotiations with the EU.

 A senior Iranian military commander said that his troops would reciprocate any aggression with 11,000 rockets fired on enemy positions and bases in the very first minute of enemy invasion.

Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta appreciated Iran’s aids and assistance to his country’s reconstruction.

Ali Kordan, who has recently been appointed as acting deputy oil minister, was assigned here on Saturday as the managing director of Iran’s National Gas Exports Company.

Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai in a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Herat on Saturday stressed the strong bonds between the two nations.

Foreign ministers of Iran and Afghanistan and deputy foreign minister of Tajikistan in a meeting in the western city of Herat on Saturday underlined the need for the further bolstering and consolidation of trilateral cooperation among the three neighboring states.

Economic Affairs and Finance Minister Davoud Danesh Jafari and Central Bank Governor Tahmasb Mazaheri left Tehran for Washington last week to attend a joint meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB).

French ambassador to Iran stressed that cultural cooperation between Tehran and Paris would secure expansion of the two countries’ ties in future.