Don’t Bomb Iran

Afghanistan splits with US on question of terror

Wednesday, March 22, 2006 - ©2005 IranMania.com

from www.iranmania.com

LONDON, March 22 (IranMania) - Afghanistan’s foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah said that his country did not share Washington’s concerns about Iran as a terrorist threat, saying Kabul has benefitted from Tehran’s aid, AFP reported.

In answer to a question at a Washington press conference about alleged evidence of Iranian terrorism in Afghanistan, Abdullah said: “We have established good neighborly relations with almost all our neighboring countries.”

“Iran has been helping us in the reconstruction process. Iran has been supportive of the political process in Afghanistan,” Abdullah said here after two days of talks with senior Washington officials.

“Friends of Afghanistan have encouraged always promotion of good relations in interactions between Afghanistan and its neighbors,” he said, adding that on the question of terrorism, “we don’t have evidence of … efforts against Afghanistan” by Iran.

Abdullah made his remarks after US Assistant Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, at the same press conference, leveled a litany of accusations against Tehran over its role as alleged purveyor of the tools of terrorism to US enemies.

“Iran is helping to support Al-Qaeda, or at least not cracking down on them within their own country, allowing them to roam free, and perhaps even supporting them,” Burns said, AFP added.

“The Iranian government of President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad continues the 25-year tradition of making Iran the central banker of the terrorist groups in the Middle East, and also the leading director of terrorist incidents in the Middle East,” Burns charged.

“We in the United States have been on the receiving end of terrorist attacks sponsored by the Iranian government, going all the way back to the early 1980s in Lebanon, and that has continued over the last two decades,” Burns said.

He cited in particular alleged Iranian efforts to supply insurgent groups in Iraq with sophisticated technology for the development of improvised explosive devices that have been used with devastating effect against US forces in Iraq.

“One of our major objections to the policies, not just of Ahmadinejad but of the predecessor governments, has been this unstinting support for terrorism. It remains one of the great American concerns about that government,” Burns said.

“Along with the fact that we object very strongly to their seeking a nuclear weapons capability,” he said, “this issue of terrorism is also on the front line of our concerns with the Iranian government.”

Abdullah met Monday with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Issues touched upon during this week’s talks included the US-led war on terror, the fight against narcotics production and trafficking, and US efforts to help train troops in Afghanistan’s national army.

Iran had tense relations with the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan and tacitly supported its removal by US-led forces. It has provided reconstruction aid to the new Kabul government and denied any links to the Taliban or Al-Qaeda.