Shiite-dominated Iran has called for Afghanistan’s new Sunni leaders to form a government that reflects the country’s ethnic diversity.

Iran is not ready to formally recognize the Taliban government in Afghanistan, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Monday, citing the importance of an inclusive Afghan government.

“Today, we are basically not at the point of recognizing,” Saeed Khatibzadeh said at a news conference. “We hope that the governing body of Afghanistan will move, through its actions, in a direction that will enable it to achieve international recognition.”

No country has offered official recognition to the Islamist group, which in September unveiled an all-male cabinet that includes a US-designated terrorist and is dominated by ethnic Pashtuns. But several countries including China, Turkey and Russia have held high-profile talks with Taliban leaders and kept their countries’ diplomatic facilities open in Afghanistan.

Iran shares a 900-kilometer (560-mile) border with Afghanistan and hosts some 3.6 million Afghan refugees. Since the Taliban’s takeover in August, hundreds of thousands of Afghan civilians have escaped into neighboring Iran using informal border crossings.

“Iran and the neighboring countries of Afghanistan insist particularly on the formation of an inclusive government which reflects the ethnic and demographic diversity of this country,” Khatibzadeh added.

Shiite Iran did not recognize the Sunni movement when it was last in power from 1996 to 2001, during which the Taliban violently oppressed Afghanistan’s Shiite Hazaras and other ethnic minorities. The Taliban’s execution of at least eight Iranian diplomats and a journalist in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif in 1998 brought Iran and the Taliban to the brink of war.

Iran has pledged to work with Afghanistan’s new Taliban leaders despite their historically rocky relationship. Hard-line Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has described the United States’ “military defeat” in Afghanistan as an opportunity for peace.

Washington, which shuttered its Kabul embassy, announced in November that Qatar will formally represent US diplomatic interests in Afghanistan. The Biden administration says recognition of the Taliban hinges on whether the group can make good on its commitments, including respecting the basic rights of women and allowing unhindered access to humanitarian aid.