The New York Times03/20/2010By Robert Mackey [Printer Friendly Version] Afghan officials and a man who claims to be a Taliban commander told Britain’s Channel 4 News that Iran was supplying weapons to Taliban insurgents. The Channel 4 News report, embedded below, shows arms, including mortars and mines, Afghan officials in the western province of Herat say they intercepted en route from Iran to the Taliban. Reporting for Channel 4 News, Nima Elbagir said that she had been shown documents and video by Afghan officials to back up their claims that weapons made in Iran were being smuggled across the border into Afghanistan. The report notes that while the Iranian government strongly denies supplying any arms to the Taliban, Britain’s Foreign Office told Channel 4 News: “at the same time as supporting the legitimate Afghan government, [Iran] is undermining it by providing weapons and training for the Taliban.” As my colleague Alissa Rubin reports on Friday, the Taliban’s alliance with elements of the Pakistani military has grown more complex recently. The former head of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, told the BBC on Friday that the arrest of a senior Taliban commander by Pakistan last month had stopped secret communications between the Taliban and the West that could have laid the foundation for peace talks to end the insurgency. Mr. Eide said that he had been engaged in talks in Dubai and elsewhere with Taliban representatives, but the back channel was cut when Pakistan arrested the group’s second in command last month.
