– THE NEW SAFE HAVEN FOR TALIBAN –IRAN

 

Following the recent operations of the Pakistani Army in FATA region, on the border with Afghanistan, and the constant UAV missile attacks on its leadership (see – Buds Of Success), the Taliban in Afghanistan was looking for a new safe haven (see also -TALIBAN’S HAVEN) . Despite religious and ideological rivalry they found an operational base and a safe haven in neighbor Iran on the base that the “enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Iran also cooperates with the Sunni Palestinian group Hamas on the same basis (see – ABYSS IN ISLAM).

 

Hundreds of insurgents have been trained in Iran to kill NATO-ISAF forces in Afghanistan two Taliban commanders told a British Sunday newspaper, published on Sunday 03/21/2010.

The unnamed commanders told The Sunday Times that Iranian officials paid them to attend three-month courses in desert training camps in southeast Iran. They were taught how to carry out complex ambushes and lay improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the roadside bombs which have been responsible for many of the deaths of British troops in Afghanistan.

 

One of the commanders told the newspaper that the military’s crackdown in Pakistan was forcing Taliban leaders to turn to Iran for assistance and training. “The military is pressuring the Taliban in Pakistan. It is certainly harder to reach places that were once easy to get into. I think more of my fighters will travel to Iran for training this year,” he said.

A commander from Wardak in central Afghanistan said: “I found some elements of the training in Iran very useful, especially the escape and evasion techniques I was taught.”

Both men said Iran also supplied them with weapons, often paying nomads to smuggle ammunition, mines and guns across the desert and mountain passes between Iran and western Afghanistan. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has publicly backed his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai and the pair held talks in Kabul this month.

Before the USA led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, operation Absolute Justice, Taliban-Iran relations were very strained and deteriorated to a lowest level when members of the Taliban murdered 10 representatives of the Iranian consulate in the Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

After having repeatedly denied any knowledge of Iranian diplomats’ whereabouts, the Taliban admitted on 09/10/ 1998 that its military forces had killed them.

 

In yet another development in the tension between Iran and USA Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has used a televised Iranian New Year address to accuse the USA of plotting against the country.

 

His words come a day after President Barack Obama sent a new year video message to Iranians saying Washington’s offer of dialogue still stood.  However, the Iranian leader did not refer directly to Mr Obama’s message.

 

In his address in the north-eastern city of Mashhad, broadcast on state TV, Ayatollah Khamenei said the USA might have been making friendly overtures but its policies showed its intentions were different. “Eight months after the elections they took the worst possible stance,” he said. “The president called those rioters and saboteurs ‘civil rights activists’.” Washington has criticised the Iranian authorities for cracking down on protesters in a series of large-scale clashes following a disputed presidential election last June (see – IRAN’S POLL).

 

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