13 June 2007

Apparent Shift in Iran’s Afghanistan Policy “Troubling”

State Department says weapons shipments to Taliban raising concerns

By Stephen Kaufman
Staff Writer

Washington -- The Bush administration expressed concern that Iran’s policy toward Afghanistan has changed in favor of promoting instability in the country, citing the transfer of weapons and explosives of Iranian origin to the Taliban rebels.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said June 13 there is widespread concern in the administration of a “shift” in the policy of the Iranian government “from either benign, neutral, to somewhat helpful in Afghanistan in the immediate aftermath of 2001, 2002, to something quite different that does not promote stability in Afghanistan.”

He said such a shift would be “troubling” and “of deep concern not only to us, but the Afghan government, as well as our NATO allies who are fighting the Taliban.”  The behavior would mark a direct effort by Iran to undermine the Afghan government’s efforts to defeat Taliban insurgents in an effort to extend its authority throughout the country, he said.

McCormack said the Bush administration knows “for a fact” that the Taliban are receiving arms of Iranian origin.  (See related article.)

“I don't think anybody disputes that. At this point, I can't tell you the extent of Iranian government involvement in that,” he said, but, citing Iran’s “past behavior and the nature of this regime,” he said the United States has “deep concerns” that Iranian weapons are being supplied to the Taliban.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said June 13 that the most recent U.S. analysis “makes it pretty clear there’s a fairly substantial flow of weapons” between Iran and the Taliban, but added that he has not seen any specific intelligence that the Iranian government is involved.

McCormack also said he could not draw a “hard link … between an Iranian government approved program and the transfer of those arms,” but said it is “hard to believe that they're not” involved, given the government’s other weapons transfers to Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian areas.

“And if they don't know about it, then that raises other troubling questions, that they don't fully control what's going on inside their own country,” he said.

Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns accused the Iranian government of transferring the weapons.

“It’s certainly coming from the government of Iran,” Burns said in a June 13 interview on CNN. “It’s coming from the Iranian revolutionary guard corps command, which is a basic unit of the Iranian government.” He added that the same organization is “supplying arms to all the other different militant groups in the Middle East.”

Burns also said it is “curious” that Iran would provide support for the Taliban, saying “The Iranians had said they were the mortal enemies of the Taliban in 2001 and ’02,” when a coalition of international and Afghan forces drove the Taliban from power.

A transcript of McCormack’s briefing is available on the State Department Web site. A transcript of Gates’ remarks is available on the Defense Department Web site.

For more on U.S. policy, see Rebuilding Afghanistan.