https://twitter.com/IranianForum/status/925353518931857409
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9XbmStMeO4
Iran’s game plan in Afghanistan:network of Shiite seminaries,support to Taliban & use of its Afghan proxy militia
https://youtu.be/o9XbmStMeO4?t=10m5s
Fars News editorial Taliban present as a moderate anti-American force. Tasnim News documentary about Taliban a useful force to drive Americans out of Afghanistan
http://ara.tv/28pa5
Iranian support to Taliban became more apparent in May 2016 when the group’s top leader, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour was killed by US drone attack in Pakistan as he was returning from Iran. Jahan News, an Iranian outlet close to the Revolutionary Guards, confirmed that he had stayed in Iran for two months prior to his death and had meetings with Iranian officials. In May 2015, an Iranian news websites tied to the Revolutionary Guards reported that a Taliban delegation visited Iran and several editorials have been published in governmental press to justify Iran’s support to Taliban.
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/07/iran_and_the_taliban.php
2009: "In fact, multiple press outlets have reported that the Iranians have been supplying anti-aircraft missiles, mines, and other arms to the Taliban.
2009: "In fact, multiple press outlets have reported that the Iranians have been supplying anti-aircraft missiles, mines, and other arms to the Taliban.
There
is another important aspect to the meetings between the Iranians and
the Taliban that Khairkhwa attended as well. A US government memo produced
for Khairkhwa’s third ARB hearing notes that in addition to
anti-aircraft missiles, the Taliban and Iran negotiated “an open border
to Iran for any Arab or Taliban to smuggle money or goods out of
Afghanistan.”
This, too, came to fruition. For example, Time Magazine reported in early 2002 that Taliban and al Qaeda terrorists slipped across the border into Iran in order to avoid American forces.
Khairkhwa’s
testimony and the US government’s evidence against Khairkhwa confirm a
central point in this Long War against terrorism. Even one-time enemies
like the Taliban and Iran can conspire when it comes to countering their
mutual enemy: America. And, somewhat surprisingly, they had begun to
plan their countermeasures even before the September 11 attacks prompted
America’s response in the region. According to the US government’s
files, that planning may have even involved senior terrorists, including
al Qaeda’s second in command, Ayman al Zawahiri."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/25/iran-backing-taliban-alqaida-afghanistan
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6750785.stmhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/25/iran-backing-taliban-alqaida-afghanistan
2010: This
is not the first time Iranian links to IEDs and suicide bombings have
been alleged. In May 2006, a report from "Source NY-9013" claims Hekmatyar's men are equipping 200 vehicles to deliver IEDs after
having bought the cars in Pakistan and Iran. "HIG members in Pakistan
provide the remote control devices for these cars." In April, 2008, the
Taliban are said to have received Iranian-made parts for 20
remote-controlled IEDs to be used against the British in Sangin.
If
the war logs intelligence is to be believed, Iran is also ready to host
Taliban leaders and their men, to offer treatment if they are injured
in the fighting and act as a conduit for foreign insurgents anxious to
join the fray. A report marked secret, and dated September 2005 , lists a
number of Taliban commanders who have gathered in Mashhad, Iran, supposedly to plan future attacks. Another in October 2006 claims Iranians have "provided support on the ground by organising transports for injured people [meaning Taliban fighters] to Tehran". No corroboration is offered.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1552311/Taliban-use-Iranian-missiles-on-UK-troops.html
22 May 2007: British troops in Afghanistan are being targeted by surface-to-air missiles supplied by Iran, a senior Army source said yesterday. Officers in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are supplying hundreds of weapons, including the missiles, to Taliban insurgents, it is believed. Most worrying is the news that SA7 Strella anti-aircraft missiles have been supplied to the Taliban. The weapons are a serious threat to helicopters supplying more than 6,000 troops.
3 June 2007: Iran has
increased arms shipments to both Iraq's Shiite
extremists and Afghanistan's Taliban
in recent weeks in an apparent attempt to pressure American and other
Western troops operating in its two strategic neighbors, according to
senior U.S. and European officials.
In
Iraq, Iranian 240mm rockets, which have a range of up to 30 miles
and could significantly change the battlefield, have been used
recently by Shiite extremists against U.S. and British targets in
Basra and Baghdad, the officials said. Three of the rockets have
targeted U.S. facilities in Baghdad's Green Zone, and one came very
close to hitting the U.S. Embassy in the Iraqi capital, according to
the U.S. officials.
The
240mm rocket is the biggest and longest-range weapon in the hands of
Shiite extremist groups, U.S. officials said. Remnants of the
rockets bear the markings of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and
are dated 2007, those sources said. The Tehran government has
supplied the same weapon, known as the Fajr-3, to Hezbollah, the
Lebanese Shiite militia.
http://www.rferl.org/a/1078675.html
14 Sep 2007: U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte says Washington has complained to Beijing about Chinese weapons shipments to Iran that appear to be turning up in the hands of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
Negroponte confirmed the U.S. concerns over China's weapons deals with Tehran after a 10-ton weapons cache was discovered in the western Afghan province of Herat.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7623496.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7616429.stm
15 Sep 2008: Elements in the Iranian state are sending weapons across the border to the Taleban in Afghanistan, a BBC investigation has uncovered. Taleban members said they had received Iranian-made arms from elements in the Iranian state and from smugglers.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/09/iranian-rockets-afghanistan-taliban-nimruz
9 March 2011: British special forces in Afghanistan have intercepted an Iranian shipment of rockets to the Taliban that would have allowed them to double the range of their attacks, western diplomats have said.
The rockets were discovered after an intelligence tip-off on 5 February when British special forces and Afghan troops stopped a convoy in Nimruz province, in the south-west of Afghanistan bordering Iran and Pakistan, the officials said. A shoot-out involving the special forces left several Taliban fighters dead.
The vehicles were found to be carrying 48 122mm rockets, which western sources described as "substantial weapons" with a range of more than 12 miles. A diplomat with knowledge of the arms shipment said that was double the range of the usual Taliban weapons.
Britain's foreign secretary, William Hague, issued a statement denouncing what he called "completely unacceptable" Iranian behaviour.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12694266
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-13545621
7 June 2011: Strong words from British Foreign Office Minister, Alistair Burt, referring to Iran's flouting of UN sanctions to sell arms to militant organisations like the Taliban. Mr Burt's fury was sparked by a consignment of powerful rockets which was discovered in February in the hands of insurgents on an Afghan battlefield. Investigators found the rockets were fitted with fuses which could only have come from Iran.
www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444130304577560241242267700
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/9444402/Taliban-opens-office-in-Iran.html
1 Aug 2012:
By helping the Taliban, Iran aims to derail a decade-long "strategic partnership" signed between Afghanistan and America in April. Tehran would also have the option of stirring violence in Afghanistan in retaliation for any US strike on its nuclear facilities.
A member of the Taliban's "Shura", or ruling council, was allowed to set up an office in May in the eastern Iranian city of Zahedan. Two months later, intercepted communications showed members of the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps discussing plans to send surface-to-air missiles to Afghanistan, although there was no evidence of the weapons actually being dispatched.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2015/may/22/taliban-delegation-official-visit-tehran-iran-isis
22 May 2015: a
delegation of Taliban, led by Mohammad Tayyab Agha, visited Iran on
Monday and held talks with Iranian leaders. While officials in Tehran denied the visit,
Iranian newspapers and Taliban confirmed that the delegation was
comprised of Taliban members from their political bureau in Qatar. A
Taliban statement said that the delegation discussed a number of issues
with Iranian officials, including the current situation in Afghanistan,
regional and Islamic world issues, and the condition of Afghan refugees
in Iran.
Monday’s
visit was not the first time a Taliban delegation has visited Iran.
They have already been to the country twice. Two years ago, they even
attended an Islamic “vigilance” conference hosted by Iran, according to state media reports.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/11672953/Iran-trains-Taliban-fighters-in-four-camps.html
http://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-backs-taliban-with-cash-and-arms-1434065528
https://twitter.com/HNajafizada/status/722643433870008320http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/11672953/Iran-trains-Taliban-fighters-in-four-camps.html
http://www.wsj.com/articles/iran-backs-taliban-with-cash-and-arms-1434065528
11 June 2015: When
Abdullah, a Taliban commander in central Afghanistan, needs more rifles
and ammunition, he turns to the same people who pay his $580-a-month
salary: his Iranian sponsors.
“Iran supplies us with whatever we need,” he said.
....
Mr.
Abdullah said smugglers hired by Iran ferry supplies across the lawless
borderlands where Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan meet and deliver them
to Taliban units in Afghan territory. He said his fighters receive
weapons that include 82mm mortars, light machine guns, AK-47 rifles,
rocket-propelled grenades and materials for making roadside bombs.
....
Revolutionary
Guard Corps have been delivering weapons to the Taliban since at least
2007, according to an October 2014 report by the U.S. Department of
Defense.
Iran’s
alliance with the Taliban took a new turn in June 2013 when Tehran
formally invited a Taliban delegation to participate in a conference on
Islam and to meet senior Iranian officials.
By
the fall of that year, Afghan security officials said they had clear
evidence that Iran was training Taliban fighters within its borders.
Tehran now operates at least four Taliban training camps, according to
Afghan officials and Mr. Abdullah, the Taliban commander. They are in
the Iranian cities of Tehran, Mashhad and Zahedan and in the province of
Kerman.
“At
the beginning Iran was supporting Taliban financially,” said a senior
Afghan official. “But now they are training and equipping them, too.”
http://www.bbc.com/persian/afghanistan/2016/04/160419_kk_taliban_spring_war
19 Apr 2016: Ghani blasts Iranian Foreign Minister for presence of Taliban in Tehran and Mashad
خبرگزاری ایرانی تسنیم در اردیبهشت پارسال از سفر طیب آغا، رئیس پیشین دفتر قطر طالبان به تهران و دیدار و گفتگوهای هیات طالبان با مقامهای ایرانی "درباره مسائل جهان اسلام و مهاجرین افغان" پرده برداشت.
Tasnim News Agency in Erdebehesht last year unveiled a trip by Tayeb Agha, former Qatari Taliban leader to Tehran, and Taliban talks and talks with Iranian officials "On the Issues of the Islamic World and Afghan Refugees."
یک منبع نزدیک به کاخ ریاست جمهوری افغانستان به بیبیسی میگوید که اشرف غنی در دیدار با مرتضی سرمدی، معاون وزیر خارجه ایران که هفته پیش به کابل سفر کرده بود، از حضور طالبان در تهران و مشهد به شدت انتقاد کرده و گفته که اگر ایران به مبارزه با تروریسم در خاور میانه اراده دارد، باید برچیدن بساط طالبان در ایران را شروع کند.
A source close to the Afghan Presidential Palace told the BBC that Ashraf Ghani strongly criticized the presence of the Taliban in Tehran and Mashhad during a meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Morteza Sarmadi, who visited Kabul last week, saying that if Iran The fight against terrorism in the Middle East is about to begin to dismantle the Taliban in Iran.
وحید مژده میگوید: "ایرانیها از بسیار سابق با طالبان روابط دارند. ظاهرا دفتر طالبان در مشهد بوده. گاهی گفته میشود چیزی به نام شورای مشهد هم وجود دارد. طبیعی است که ایرانیها با طالبان نزدیک هستند. اما روسها ارتباطشان را از طریق ایران تامین میکنند چون ظرفیتهای قبلی که در افغانستان داشتند را از دست دادهاند.
Vahid Mozhdeh says: "Iranians have a relationship with the Taliban since the former Taliban have apparently been to Mashhad, and it is sometimes said that there is something called the Mashhad Council. It is natural that the Iranians are close to the Taliban, but the Russians are connecting them through Iran. Because they have lost their previous capabilities in Afghanistan. "
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/23/death-of-mullah-mansoor-highlights-talibans-links-with-iran
23 May 2016: Mullah Mansoor first entered Iran almost two months ago, according to immigration stamps in a Pakistani passport found in a bag near the wreckage of the taxi he was travelling in when he was killed by a US drone strike.
....
In 2007, senior US diplomat Eric Edelman warned Hamid Karzai, then the Afghan president, that “Iranian meddling was getting increasingly lethal”, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable.
The Department of State document said Iran was supplying surface-to-air missiles and that explosively formed projectiles, an especially deadly form of landmine, had been intercepted by British troops.
In addition to Iranian unease at the large US military presence in the region, some Afghans believe Tehran prefers its immediate neighbour to remain permanently hobbled.
Karzai told Edelman that Iran was trying to sabotage Afghanistan’s development to prevent it from becoming an important regional transit hub, and to protect its natural gas exports to India and Pakistan from central Asian competition.
More recently Tehran has seen the Taliban as a useful foil to Islamic State, the Syria-based militant group that has been trying to gain a foothold in Afghanistan at the expense of the Taliban.
Iran is also anxious to preserve links with a group that may come to play a formal role in Afghan politics if peace talks ever prove successful.
The Afghan government has avoided publicly rebuking Tehran, even though “Iran is at least as dangerous as Pakistan” in the words of former foreign minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta.
According to another leaked document, Spanta told a US diplomat in 2007 that Kabul could not afford to antagonise Iran while it struggled with the problem of Pakistan-backed militants.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/26/exclusive-iran-teams-with-taliban-to-fight-islamic-state-in-afghanistan/
26 May 2016:
Tehran is going even further, and enlisting
elements of the Taliban to slow the Islamic State’s expansion
inside Afghanistan and prevent militants from the group — which
espouses a violently anti-Shiite ideology — from crossing into Iran
.....
Barnett Rubin, a former senior U.S. diplomat with years of
experience in Afghanistan, said Iran’s strategic views of the
utility of the Taliban began to change in 2007 after the United
States signed a partnership with Kabul allowing American forces to
stay in the country. “Iran had to calculate how to support the
government while opposing the U.S. — they considered permanent U.S.
bases in Afghanistan a permanent strategic threat to Iran,” Rubin
said. He added that Tehran opened lines of communication with
specific Taliban commanders to encourage them to strike American
military targets there.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/27/mullah-mansour-iran-afghanistan-taliban-drone/
27 May 2016: News reports over the last year suggest increased levels of Iranian cash and arms transfers to the Taliban. But why? One reason, which may also help explain Moscow’s recent outreach to the Taliban, is the shared unease about the rising influence of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, where several thousand former Taliban fighters, most of them in the eastern province of Nangarhar, have declared their allegiance to the group. Some of Mullah Mansour’s supporters, demoralized by their leader’s sudden death, could join these Islamic State-aligned fighters.
Another factor that may help explain Iran-Taliban comity is the Taliban’s desire to wean itself off Pakistani sanctuaries and other largesse. As I’ve written previously, NATO interviews with Taliban detainees reveal that many of the group’s leaders and fighters chafe at their reliance on Islamabad, a patron many Taliban members do not trust because of the tight control it likes to exert over them as well as its willingness to arrest those Taliban personnel deemed uncooperative.
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2016/05/analysis-iran-has-supported-the-talibans-insurgency-since-late-2001.php
29 May 2016: Zabihullah Mujahid (the Taliban’s chief spokesman) has conceded that Mansour was indeed inside Iran. Dawn quotes Mujahid as saying the Taliban chief crossed the border because of “ongoing battle obligations,” adding that Mansour made multiple “unofficial trips” to Iran.
... by late 2001, as the Americans prepared to topple the Taliban’s government, the situation changed dramatically. Outwardly, the Iranians acted as if they just wanted to help rebuild Afghanistan. Western diplomats have praised Iran for its role in the Dec. 2001 meetings in Bonn, Germany, where a post-Taliban government was established. But there is much more to this story. Just before the American-led invasion of Afghanistan two months earlier, the Iranians cut a secret deal with Mullah Omar’s representatives.
One of Omar’s most trusted lieutenants, Khairullah Khairkhwa, helped broker an agreement with the Iranians in Oct. 2001. We know this because Khairkhwa was captured in Pakistan in early 2002, transferred to Guantanamo and then told American officials all about it.
A district court in Washington, DC denied Khairkhwa’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus in 2011. The court found that Khairkhwa “repeatedly admitted” that after the 9/11 attacks “he served as a member of a Taliban envoy that met clandestinely with senior Iranian officials to discuss Iran’s offer to provide the Taliban with weapons and other military support in anticipation of imminent hostilities with U.S. coalition forces.” [See LWJ report, DC district court denies former Taliban governor’s habeas petition.]
According to the court, the Iranians told Khairkhwa and his Taliban delegation that they could provide shoulder-fired missiles (SAM-7’s) and “track all movements by the United States.” In addition, the Iranians “offered to open their border to Arabs entering Afghanistan.” Iran did just that, allowing some al Qaeda members and others to escape the American onslaught.
Joint Task Force – Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO), which oversees the detention facility, deemed Khairkhwa a “high” risk to the U.S. and its allies, in part, because of his dealings with the Iranians. Despite JTF-GTMO’s assessment, and the DC court’s rejection of his habeas petition, Khairkhwa was transferred to Qatar in 2014. He was one of the five Taliban commanders exchanged for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.
...
“Since 2006,” the State Department noted in its Country Reports on Terrorism for 2012, “Iran has arranged arms shipments to select Taliban members, including small arms and associated ammunition, rocket propelled grenades, mortar rounds, 107mm rockets, and plastic explosives.” In 2012, the Iranians “shipped a large number of weapons to Kandahar, Afghanistan, aiming to increase its influence in this key province.”
Foggy Bottom added that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force (IRGC-QF) “trained Taliban elements on small unit tactics, small arms, explosives, and indirect fire weapons, such as mortars, artillery, and rockets.”
A series of Treasury Department terror designations illuminate the relationship between the IRGC-QF and the Taliban.
In August 2010, Treasury designated two IRGC-QF commanders as terrorists for providing “financial and material support to the Taliban.” A special unit in the IRGC-QF known as the Ansar Corps is responsible for orchestrating attacks in Afghanistan. Nearly two years later, in Mar. 2012, Treasury identified IRGC-QF General Gholamreza Baghbani as a narcotics trafficker. At the time, Baghbani was based in Zahedan, Iran, which is near the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan. From this strategically situated crossroads, Baghbani allegedly oversaw an operation that “moved weapons to the Taliban,” while smuggling “heroin precursor chemicals through the Iranian border” and facilitating “shipments of opium into Iran.” This guns-for-drugs scheme directly fueled the Taliban’s insurgency, according to Treasury.
Treasury wasn’t finished. In February 2014, three other IRGC-QF officials and one of their associates were designated for plotting terrorist acts in Afghanistan and also using “intelligence operations as tools of influence against” the Afghan government. Iran’s duplicitous scheme meant that the IRGC-QF was “currying favor” with some Afghan politicians while targeting other officials for assassination.
In the weeks immediately following 9/11, the Iranian regime and the Taliban met in the shadows. In the 14-plus years since, their relationship has become overt. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2012 that the Taliban has set up an office in Zahedan, which is also a well-known al Qaeda hub. Taliban officials have repeatedly and openly attended meetings in Tehran. And other sources confirm that Iran has often provided the Taliban with arms and training.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/05/iran-marriage-convenience-taliban-isis.html#ixzz4AOzmOiYb
31 May 2016: US forces have targeted IS in Afghanistan heavily this year, striking its camps in eastern Nangarhar province. Analysts say the group missed an opportunity to recruit more disaffected Afghan Taliban after it was revealed that the Taliban leadership had kept the 2013 death of the group’s founder, Mullah Omar, secret for two years. Earlier this year, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper described IS as a “low level threat to Afghan stability.”
Given this assessment and the fact that IS is concentrated in eastern Afghanistan, both Rubin and Cunningham said that a recent report claiming Iran had enlisted the Taliban to build a buffer zone against IS on the Iran-Afghan border was overstated.
Rubin said, “There is more alignment between the Taliban and Pakistan,” which has harbored Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders for many years. “With Iran, it’s a marriage of convenience.”
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2016/06/iran-shuts-down-news-site-after-reporting-taliban-emir-held-talks-with-officials.php
16 June 2016: Iranian authorities shuttered a news website after
it claimed that the Taliban’s previous emir was inside Iran for two
months and strategized with officials to counter the Islamic State.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/1200348/reaching-taliban-move-claim-diplomatic-acceptability/
17 Oct 2016: A lukewarm response from most Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, pushed the Taliban to reach out to Tehran, according to insiders. The group angrily reacted to a plan of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to hold a conference of religious scholars in the holy cities of Makkah and Madina in mid-October. The conference, which the Taliban descried as a ‘plot of intelligence agencies’, was subsequently postponed.
...
Taliban leaders are now frequent visitors to Iran as they are campaigning to find new allies, a second Taliban leader told The Express Tribune.
A three-member Taliban military delegation, headed by military
commission chief Ibrahim Sadr, visited Tehran this year in an apparent
move to ‘seek military aid’ from Iran.
The
delegations are said to have allayed Iran’s concerns about the harsh
treatment of the Shia Hazaras during the Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
Officially, Iran has never confirmed the Taliban’s visits; however, the
Iranian media close to the security establishment confirmed such visits
on several occasions.
http://www.voanews.com/a/afghanistan-iran-russia-taliban/3624592.html
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/170846-Afghan-Senate-confirms-Iranian-support-to-Taliban
9 Dec 2016:
http://www.voanews.com/a/afghanistan-iran-russia-taliban/3624592.html
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/170846-Afghan-Senate-confirms-Iranian-support-to-Taliban
9 Dec 2016:
The Governor of the state of Farah in Afghanistan, Asif Ning, explained in an interview with the Dari-speaking ‘Freedom Radio’, the circumstances surrounding the latency of Taliban on Iranian territory, stating: “They are living in the cities of Yazd, Kerman and Mashhad. They eventually return to Afghanistan to vandalise. At the time being, a number of senior members of the Taliban leaders are living in Iran.”
“The bodies of Taliban fighters killed in recent clashes were delivered to their families in Iran,” he added. It is against this background that the spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry Bahram Kasimi refuted the above allegations declaring that “the reports affirming the presence of Taliban members in Iran are clearly unfounded as fraternal relations exist between Iran and Kabul on the basis of common interests.”
The report states, quoting the head of the Afghan Senate, Fadel Hadi Muslim Yar, that “there are in our possession supporting evidence confirming the cooperation between both Russia and Iran with the Taliban.”
http://www.mehrnews.com/news/3849231/%D8%B3%D8%AE%D9%86%DB%8C-%DA%A9%D9%87-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%AB-%D8%A2%D8%AA%D8%B4-%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B2%DB%8C-%D8%B4%D9%88%D8%AF-%D8%AC%D8%B1%D9%85-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tehran-hosts-taliban-chiefs-at-islamic-unity-summit-xlkw8lfkx
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2016/12/14/Iran-hosts-Taliban-leaders-at-a-conference-in-Tehran.html
14 Dec 2016:
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/12/iran-islamic-unity-conference-rouhani-shiite-crescent.html#ixzz4T1lMUGNY
14 Dec 2016:
http://www.mehrnews.com/news/3849231/%D8%B3%D8%AE%D9%86%DB%8C-%DA%A9%D9%87-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%AB-%D8%A2%D8%AA%D8%B4-%D8%A7%D9%81%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B2%DB%8C-%D8%B4%D9%88%D8%AF-%D8%AC%D8%B1%D9%85-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tehran-hosts-taliban-chiefs-at-islamic-unity-summit-xlkw8lfkx
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2016/12/14/Iran-hosts-Taliban-leaders-at-a-conference-in-Tehran.html
14 Dec 2016:
In an unprecedented move, Tehran is publicly hosting leaders of hardline Taliban movement in the ‘Islamic Unity’ conference.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/12/iran-islamic-unity-conference-rouhani-shiite-crescent.html#ixzz4T1lMUGNY
14 Dec 2016:
In response to a question about the invitation of some groups, such as the Taliban, to the 30th International Islamic Unity Conference, Secretary General of the World Forum for Proximity of the Islamic Schools of Thought Ayatollah Mohsen Araki said in a press conference Dec. 13, “The Taliban itself has various currents [within it] that we can have contact with, and this year some of them will take part in the conference. We are attempting to have contact with anyone with whom dialogue is possible.”
Of note, Iranian Ambassador to Afghanistan Mohammad Reza Bahrami said as recently as Dec. 10, “We have contacts with the Taliban, but we don’t have a relationship. Our contact is aimed at controlling [them] and having intelligence domination.” He added, “We are interested in and are trying to provide the grounds for holding negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban.”
http://ara.tv/4g45z
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international/313100-how-iran-aides-the-afghan-taliban-under-americas-nose
29 Dec 2016:
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) has been active amongst Taliban terrorists opposing the Afghan government, Radio France International website reported on Tuesday citing Farah Province officials in western Afghanistan.
Farah Provincial Council Chair Jamile Amini has accused Iran of sending IRGC members to join the Taliban ranks and files, adding that 25 Taliban members recently killed in this province were IRGC members.
http://www.rferl.org/a/28250806.html
23 Jan 2017:
http://www.voanews.com/a/water-afghan-leaders-believe-iran-uses-taliban-to-target-projects/3689059.html
http://ara.tv/4g45z
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international/313100-how-iran-aides-the-afghan-taliban-under-americas-nose
29 Dec 2016:
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) has been active amongst Taliban terrorists opposing the Afghan government, Radio France International website reported on Tuesday citing Farah Province officials in western Afghanistan.
Farah Provincial Council Chair Jamile Amini has accused Iran of sending IRGC members to join the Taliban ranks and files, adding that 25 Taliban members recently killed in this province were IRGC members.
http://www.rferl.org/a/28250806.html
23 Jan 2017:
The governor of Afghanistan's volatile Helmand Province said Iranians and Pakistanis have recently met with Taliban insurgents involved in fighting Afghan forces.
Governor Hayatullah Hayat told Radio Free Afghanistan on January 22 that "Iranian interference [in Afghan affairs] has increased" recently, noting the meeting with Taliban fighters in Helmand's Garmsir district that he said also involved Pakistanis.
He said the Afghan intelligence agency has confirmed the meeting and he has ordered a further investigation into foreign interference in Helmand.
Hayat said rockets with Iranian markings were also found after a Taliban attack on the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.
He added that the Pakistani military is also involved in "mobilizing insurgents" in Helmand.
23 Jan 2017:
Afghan governors in southern and western provinces charged on Monday that Iran is using an increasingly close relationship with the Afghan Taliban to target power and water projects on Tehran's behalf.
Hayatullah Hayat, the governor of southern Helmand province, told VOA's Afghan service that the Islamic Republic wants the Taliban to disable some of the nation's dams so that Tehran can get a larger share of water from the Helmand River. He cited classified Afghan intelligence reports forwarded to the Afghan palace and the National Security Council.
“Iran is seeking to undermine the development projects over the Helmand River so that it can continue receiving more water," Hayat said.
The Helmand governor accused elements in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard forces of providing sophisticated weapons to the Taliban that could be used to attack government installations and infrastructure. He said several unexploded mortar missiles used by the Taliban bore an Iranian manufacturer's mark and were fired at the provincial capital.
The governor added that Iran's intelligence representatives recently met with local Taliban leaders in Helmand's volatile Garmser district.
https://sputniknews.com/politics/201703281052048191-afghanistan-iran-dialogue/
28 Mar 2017:
Moscow welcomes Iran's involvement in establishing a direct dialogue between the Afghan government and the Taliban terrorist group, outlawed in Russia, President Vladimir Putin said following talks with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday.
http://gandhara.rferl.org/a/28399944.html
30 Mar 2017:
Tehran is not only openly engaging with the Taliban; it is also extending material support to their insurgency with training camps located inside Iran. This is an extraordinary development, not only because the two follow different sects of Islam but were archenemies. Tehran threatened to go to war with the Taliban in 1998 and attempted to assassinate their founding leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, in 1999.
...
The governor added that Iran's intelligence representatives recently met with local Taliban leaders in Helmand's volatile Garmser district.
https://sputniknews.com/politics/201703281052048191-afghanistan-iran-dialogue/
28 Mar 2017:
Moscow welcomes Iran's involvement in establishing a direct dialogue between the Afghan government and the Taliban terrorist group, outlawed in Russia, President Vladimir Putin said following talks with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday.
http://gandhara.rferl.org/a/28399944.html
30 Mar 2017:
Tehran is not only openly engaging with the Taliban; it is also extending material support to their insurgency with training camps located inside Iran. This is an extraordinary development, not only because the two follow different sects of Islam but were archenemies. Tehran threatened to go to war with the Taliban in 1998 and attempted to assassinate their founding leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, in 1999.
...
Tehran was first drawn to Mansur after he publically warned the Islamic State (IS) group’s leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, against extending his organization’s operation into Afghanistan in June 2015.
Mawlawi Amin (name changed), a senior Taliban commander who was removed by Mansur, told me that after Mansur formally assumed the Taliban leadership in July 2015, the Taliban’s relations with Iran began to grow rapidly. By the end of the year, Amin says, Tehran helped the Taliban establish two military training camps on its soil. The camps in a remote part of Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan Province were close to the country’s borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan to ease Taliban movements into the battlefield in southern Afghan provinces and minimize the potential of the Taliban to inspire local Sunni Baluch to radicalize.
....
Amin said Iranian officials were regularly sending weapons and money to the Taliban leadership council, called Quetta Shura after the southwestern Pakistani province based in Pakistan. Mansur used his relations with Iran to consolidate grip over the Taliban organization. He quickly sidelined Mullah Omar confidant Tayyab Agha, who had developed relations with Iran in the previous years and was formally responsible for keeping contact with Tehran. In a swipe at Mansur, Agha resigned as head of Taliban Qatar office in August 2015 after publicly questioning Mansur’s reliance on foreign sponsors.
A Taliban commander in the western Afghan province of Herat said Mansur used to vet and approve commanders before officially introducing them to his Iranian contacts. This was his way of ensuring that only his loyalists could receive assistance and training from the Iranians.
Haji Mawin (name changed), a member of the Taliban leadership council, said that after Mansur’s death most of the Iranian assistance now goes to Sirajuddin Haqqani and Ibrahim Sadar. Haqqani is the deputy head of the Taliban while Sadar is the current Taliban military chief. “Such an unfair distribution angers Gul Agha Akhund, one of the key former loyalists to Mansur and head of the Taliban finance commission,” he noted.
Iran's financial help would be a welcome relief for the Taliban, who are suffering from a slump in revenues. This is partly because decreasing international aid and a diminishing international presence in Afghanistan. The Taliban have indirectly benefited from international assistance. Many contractors in the countryside have paid Taliban cash to buy their protection and prevent them from attacking their convoys and projects.
...The two nearly went to war after nine Iranian diplomats were killed during the Taliban’s recapture of the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif in September 1998. Tehran mobilized 200,000 army troops and 70,000 Revolutionary Guards near its border with Afghanistan.
The major Iranian assault on Taliban leadership, however, remained unreported. In August 1999, a massive truck bomb detonated outside Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s house in Kandahar. Omar remained unhurt from the explosion, but two of his half-brothers and five security guards were killed. A former Taliban minister, who is not a member of the insurgency now, investigated the attack recently told me that Tehran was behind the bombing.
Tehran's threat perception led it to be "comprehensively helpful" in supporting the U.S.-led military intervention in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. In the subsequent years, particularly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Tehran saw the U.S.-led intervention as a threat and began viewing the Taliban in a different light.
In the initial years of the Taliban insurgency, Iran established contacts with some Taliban field commanders and began supporting their activities in southern and western Afghan provinces close to the Afghan border. Haji Lala, a senior Taliban figure who once commanded more than 300 fighters in the western Herat and Farah Provinces, told me that Tehran would finance his group’s activities only if they targeted NATO troops.
“Sepah Pasdaran [the Revolutionary Guard] invited me to Iran twice. In my first meeting in 2009 before the U.S. troops surge, I asked whether there would be a reward for attacking the Afghan government because it was comparatively easier for us,” Lala said in September 2016. “My hosts clearly said they want the U.S. [primarily] and other NATO [secondarily] to bleed in Afghanistan."
Iran now appears to be joining Russia in pushing back against the U.S. and NATO presence in Afghanistan. Tehran and Moscow appear keen on recognizing the Taliban as a legitimate party in the Afghan conflict. Its relations with the Taliban, however, come at a cost for both. It is destabilizing Afghanistan and fueling violence, which would eventually impact regional security affecting Iran.
Tehran is likely to be stung by its strategy to contain the Islamic State militants by bankrolling the Taliban. The Taliban are capable of providing a conducive environment for Sunni militants of all hues whose future aims will inevitably clash with those of Iran's clerical regime.
https://gandhara.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-iran-taliban-aid/28641841.html
25 Jul 2017:
https://gandhara.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-iran-taliban-aid/28641841.html
25 Jul 2017:
Iran has been involved in the war in the Afghan province of Ghor and the fall of Taywara district, an Afghan official said on July 25.
Taywara fell to the Taliban on July 23.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/05/world/asia/iran-afghanistan-taliban.html
5 Aug 2017:
FARAH, Afghanistan — A police officer guarding the outskirts of this city remembers the call from his commander, warning that hundreds of Taliban fighters were headed his way.
“Within half an hour, they attacked,” recalled Officer Najibullah Amiri, 35. The Taliban swarmed the farmlands surrounding his post and seized the western riverbank here in Farah, the capital of the province by the same name.
It was the start of a three-week siege in October, and only after American air support was called in to end it and the smoke cleared did Afghan security officials realize who was behind the lightning strike: Iran.
Four senior Iranian commandos were among the scores of dead, Afghan intelligence officials said, noting their funerals in Iran. Many of the Taliban dead and wounded were also taken back across the nearby border with Iran, where the insurgents had been recruited and trained, village elders told Afghan provincial officials.
.....
One way to do that, Afghans said, is for Iran to aid its onetime enemies, the Taliban, to ensure a loyal proxy and also to keep the country destabilized, without tipping it over. That is especially true along their shared border of more than 500 miles.
But fielding an insurgent force to seize control of a province shows a significant — and risky — escalation in Iran’s effort. “Iran does not want stability here,” Naser Herati, one of the police officers guarding the post outside Farah, said angrily. “People here hate the Iranian flag. They would burn it.”
...
Iran has conducted an intensifying covert intervention, much of which is only now coming to light. It is providing local Taliban insurgents with weapons, money and training. It has offered Taliban commanders sanctuary and fuel for their trucks. It has padded Taliban ranks by recruiting among Afghan Sunni refugees in Iran, according to Afghan and Western officials.
https://www.mei.edu/content/io/top-afghan-military-official-we-have-evidence-iran-provides-weapons-taliban
6 Sep 2017:
The Chief of General Staff for the Afghanistan National Defense and Security Forces has said that the Kabul government has evidence that Iran is providing weapons and other military assets to the Taliban in western Afghanistan. In an interview with the BBC Persian, Lieutenant General Mohammad Sharif Yaftali added that President Ashraf Ghani discussed the issue with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani last month in Tehran but did not disclose details of the meeting. He stressed that the Afghan government wants to resolve the issue through “dialogue and understanding” with Tehran. Asked about reports on Russia’s assistance to the Taliban, the top Afghan general said Kabul does not any evidence in that regard. He, however, claimed that Pakistani Army Chief Qamar Bajwa had admitted Islamabad’s links with the Taliban and pledged to eliminate “terrorist safe havens” at a recent quadrilateral meeting between the leaders of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and Tajikistan in Dushanbe.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/31/150000-americans-couldnt-beat-us-taliban-fighters-defiant-in-afghanistan
31 Oct 2017:
https://twitter.com/SecKermani/status/973156680761569280
12 Mar 2018:
Iranian FM on visit to Islamabad says Iran “encourages dialogue between all Afghans including between the Government and the Taliban” and says Iran will use its influence to help achieve “a peaceful resolution”
http://www.mei.edu/content/article/io/afghans-see-iran-s-hand-taliban-s-latest-gains-western-afghanistan
14 Mar 2018:
On Monday, the Taliban briefly overrun a district in western Afghanistan's Farah Province bordering Iran, just days after the insurgents killed several Afghan security forces in another district in the province. With Farah teetering on the brink of collapse, Afghan officials blame the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) for aiding the Taliban insurgents in western Afghanistan in an effort to torpedo construction projects and undermine stabilization efforts by the US-led coalition in the region. Unlike in the past, IRGC-affiliated media outlets now openly express support for the Taliban’s latest territorial gains in western Afghanistan, arguing that the Taliban pose no security threats to Iran and have managed to keep ISIS away from the Iranian borders. Commentary in the IRGC outlets also indicate that Iran’s support to the Taliban is aimed at expelling US and NATO forces from Afghanistan, particularly from western Afghan provinces. In addition, one IRGC news agency raised alarm about the “growing influence” of Arab Gulf states in western Afghanistan, specifically citing Saudi Arabia’s interest to help finance the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline, which will connect Central Asia to South Asia through western Afghanistan. According to Afghan officials, Tehran wants to undermine the TAPI project because it rivals Iran's own regional pipeline project.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/05/world/asia/iran-afghanistan-taliban.html
5 Aug 2017:
FARAH, Afghanistan — A police officer guarding the outskirts of this city remembers the call from his commander, warning that hundreds of Taliban fighters were headed his way.
“Within half an hour, they attacked,” recalled Officer Najibullah Amiri, 35. The Taliban swarmed the farmlands surrounding his post and seized the western riverbank here in Farah, the capital of the province by the same name.
It was the start of a three-week siege in October, and only after American air support was called in to end it and the smoke cleared did Afghan security officials realize who was behind the lightning strike: Iran.
Four senior Iranian commandos were among the scores of dead, Afghan intelligence officials said, noting their funerals in Iran. Many of the Taliban dead and wounded were also taken back across the nearby border with Iran, where the insurgents had been recruited and trained, village elders told Afghan provincial officials.
.....
One way to do that, Afghans said, is for Iran to aid its onetime enemies, the Taliban, to ensure a loyal proxy and also to keep the country destabilized, without tipping it over. That is especially true along their shared border of more than 500 miles.
But fielding an insurgent force to seize control of a province shows a significant — and risky — escalation in Iran’s effort. “Iran does not want stability here,” Naser Herati, one of the police officers guarding the post outside Farah, said angrily. “People here hate the Iranian flag. They would burn it.”
...
Iran has conducted an intensifying covert intervention, much of which is only now coming to light. It is providing local Taliban insurgents with weapons, money and training. It has offered Taliban commanders sanctuary and fuel for their trucks. It has padded Taliban ranks by recruiting among Afghan Sunni refugees in Iran, according to Afghan and Western officials.
https://www.mei.edu/content/io/top-afghan-military-official-we-have-evidence-iran-provides-weapons-taliban
6 Sep 2017:
The Chief of General Staff for the Afghanistan National Defense and Security Forces has said that the Kabul government has evidence that Iran is providing weapons and other military assets to the Taliban in western Afghanistan. In an interview with the BBC Persian, Lieutenant General Mohammad Sharif Yaftali added that President Ashraf Ghani discussed the issue with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani last month in Tehran but did not disclose details of the meeting. He stressed that the Afghan government wants to resolve the issue through “dialogue and understanding” with Tehran. Asked about reports on Russia’s assistance to the Taliban, the top Afghan general said Kabul does not any evidence in that regard. He, however, claimed that Pakistani Army Chief Qamar Bajwa had admitted Islamabad’s links with the Taliban and pledged to eliminate “terrorist safe havens” at a recent quadrilateral meeting between the leaders of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and Tajikistan in Dushanbe.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/31/150000-americans-couldnt-beat-us-taliban-fighters-defiant-in-afghanistan
31 Oct 2017:
After recent US pressure on Pakistan to crack down on militant sanctuaries, some Taliban fighters consider opting for another regional neighbour, Omari said: “Many Taliban want to leave Pakistan for Iran. They don’t trust Pakistan anymore.”
Pakistan denies harbouring militants, but Saeed admitted receiving assistance from Pakistan, though he denied being under anyone’s thumb. “Having relations is one thing, taking orders is something else,” he said. “Every party, if they want to be stronger, need to talk to other countries. We should talk to Iran, and we should talk to Pakistan. Just like the Afghan government goes to India and China.”
https://twitter.com/SecKermani/status/973156680761569280
12 Mar 2018:
Iranian FM on visit to Islamabad says Iran “encourages dialogue between all Afghans including between the Government and the Taliban” and says Iran will use its influence to help achieve “a peaceful resolution”
http://www.mei.edu/content/article/io/afghans-see-iran-s-hand-taliban-s-latest-gains-western-afghanistan
14 Mar 2018:
On Monday, the Taliban briefly overrun a district in western Afghanistan's Farah Province bordering Iran, just days after the insurgents killed several Afghan security forces in another district in the province. With Farah teetering on the brink of collapse, Afghan officials blame the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) for aiding the Taliban insurgents in western Afghanistan in an effort to torpedo construction projects and undermine stabilization efforts by the US-led coalition in the region. Unlike in the past, IRGC-affiliated media outlets now openly express support for the Taliban’s latest territorial gains in western Afghanistan, arguing that the Taliban pose no security threats to Iran and have managed to keep ISIS away from the Iranian borders. Commentary in the IRGC outlets also indicate that Iran’s support to the Taliban is aimed at expelling US and NATO forces from Afghanistan, particularly from western Afghan provinces. In addition, one IRGC news agency raised alarm about the “growing influence” of Arab Gulf states in western Afghanistan, specifically citing Saudi Arabia’s interest to help finance the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline, which will connect Central Asia to South Asia through western Afghanistan. According to Afghan officials, Tehran wants to undermine the TAPI project because it rivals Iran's own regional pipeline project.
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