Iran’s Support for the Taliban Is No Surprise
U.S. military officials are confirming that Shiite Iran is covertly helping the Sunni Taliban militants waging war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the media is treating it like it is news. The truth is that it is only news because the media, commentators, and some in the national security apparatus have adamantly stuck to the myth that cross-ideological cooperation between extremists is impossible. The thinking that extremists are so intolerant of different points of view that they’d never ally with one another rests on sound logic, but not sound evidence.
The alliance between Iran and the Taliban is a strong rebuttal to this still-too-common theory in analytical circles. Not only are the two on the opposite sides ideologically, they were fierce enemies for a long time. The Taliban viciously oppressed Shiites, and Iran nearly went to war with them in 1999 after they murdered eight Iranian diplomats. The Iranians backed Ahmad Shah Massoud of the Northern Alliance that sought to overthrow the Taliban. If these two sides can ally together despite their differences, then it shows that the analysis about the nature of Islamic extremists’ dealing with one another couldn’t be more wrong.
The Iranian regime and the Taliban immediately put aside their differences in the wake of September 11, 2001. The Taliban’s governor of Herat province told his American captors that he attended a meeting between Iranian and Taliban officials in October 2001 where he was tasked with arranging security. It was here that the Iranians agreed to provide unspecified assistance to the Taliban. An aide to a warlord in Herat confirmed to Time magazine that an official close to Ayatollah Khamenei went to Kabul in October 2001 and offered safe harbor. Time says that 50 vehicles carrying 250 senior Taliban and al-Qaeda members escaped to Iran.
The Iranians have long supported Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a top insurgency leader allied to the Taliban. In 2005, Spanish military-intelligence described him as having “total freedom” in a Tehran hotel, where he managed his forces with protection from the elite Qods Force of the Revolutionary Guards. Another top Taliban official that worked with the Iranians was Mullah Mustafa, who was killed in June 2009 in an airstrike.
The State Department says that as early as 2006, Iran was arming Taliban militants with “small arms and associated ammunition, rocket propelled grenades, mortar rounds, 107mm rockets, and plastic explosives.” The Qods Force was confirmed to be giving them training on “small unit tactics, small arms, explosives, and indirect fire weapons.”
An anonymous Taliban commander in September 2008 confirmed that Iran was shipping them explosively formed projectiles (EFPs), a sophisticated form of the improvised explosive devices that were being used to kill American soldiers in armored personnel carriers in Iraq. As the U.S. is using tactics honed in Iraq to fight in Afghanistan, so too are the Iranians.
“Me against my brother, me and my brother against the world.” is an old Arab saying. Historically, Islam subgroups have constantly fought against each other for supremacy in the Muslim world – and just as readily have combined forces when required to attack or repel outsiders. It is part and parcel of the Islamic worldview and should not come as a surprise to anyone.
The extremists within Islam would be murdered by those who follow the path of Mohammed if they group together, and demand peace.
Ever heard of the proverb that ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend?’. I take it you’ve not..
Why I don’t believe what you posted.
A: Iran supported the invasion of Afghanistan.
B: Iran supported the democratization of Iraq.
C: Iran helped by trying to block infiltration of insurgents into Iraq.
D: What you post sounds just like Bush propaganda.
Iran was repaid for their help with continuing American hostility that strengthened the militant segments, not weakened them.
And most of the evidence for your claims seems to come from elements who would gain from a US invasion of Iran. Which would be a disaster for us.
Bob,
“Iran was repaid for their help with continuing American hostility that strengthened the militant segments, not weakened them.”
There’s your answer. One of them, at least. There are those who, like you, believe that continuing American hostility is what drove Iran to back al-Qaeda extremists that it had previously regarded as blood enemies. It’s also probable, however, that in removing Saddam and the Taliban, Iran’s two major enemies not affiliated with the U.S, the United States and its allies became Iran’s only remaining enemy in the region and, therefore, its priority target. (A historical example would be the United States and the Soviet Union going into cold war after their mutual enemies were all destroyed – and neither side was averse to using ex-Nazis against the enemy, even though they both loathed them from the bottom of their hearts).
I understand why you hesitate to believe anything published on this website, but don’t overdo it either. In this case, this is news I’ve read/heard from other sources as well, including people I know who work or have worked closely on the ground in Iraq or Afghanistan. Remember, this is international politics; in the name of realpolitik, anything really is possible.
This is nothing new. The Israelis displayed captured Iranian weapons from Gaza, they were identical to the ones used against us in Afganistan. that was right down to the insignias and writing on them. I’m wondering what else they would make avialable once they are nuclear.
Ryan:
Boy you are wowing people with your articles! Pretty soon you will have to pay PJM to post.