Senior US Army officer: Taliban receiving training on Iranian soil

[bobdina]

Senior US Army officer: Taliban receiving training on Iranian soil
By Austin KnuppeMarch 24, 2010 6:56 AM

US Army Lieutenant Colonel Edward Sholtis announced on Monday that elements within Iran are training Taliban fighters on Iranian soil. The news that Tehran is supporting contingents of the Taliban is not new; US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry has said several times before that the Iranians are providing material support to insurgents in the western provinces of Afghanistan.

What is unique about this current announcement is its claim that Taliban forces are receiving training on Iranian soil.

It is still unknown to what extent the Ahmadinejad regime is directly supporting or overseeing such training exercises. It could be the case that these special training forces are operating without the consent of the central government, because the IRGC and its shadow Qods Force are not under Ahmadinejad's authority. Rather, the IRGC and the Qods Force report directly to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei himself; thus it can be inferred that either he or members of his staff are aware of the support for the Taliban and have granted approval.

However, these actions do not demonstrate that Iran is directly allying with the Taliban. If the US were to leave Afghanistan, Tehran would play both sides in order to keep the central government in Kabul weak. In international relations, especially in the Middle East, often times you win by not losing; the best way to exercise regional hegemony is for a state to ensure that its immediate neighbors remain weak. By tampering with the internal dynamics of Iraq and Afghanistan, Iran is attempting to secure its place as a major -- if not the major -- player in Persian Gulf politics.

The US government will also need to keep an eye on the Saudis and their Gulf allies. How will these states react to the rising Shia primacy? Can the United States and its allies preserve the balance of power in the Persian Gulf? Regardless of how Westerners answer these questions, they can be certain that Tehran has already thought long and hard about the power politics of the region.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2010/03/senior_us_army_officer_taliban_1.php#ixzz0j79H6oY0

[Toki]

Nothing new. Iran has been training and arming the mullahs for years.

[scoutsout80]

This is not a new thing, but it does seem to be a growing problem. The Iranians have been killing our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for many years, but neither the Bush or Obama administrations have seen fit to do a damn thing about it. The current escalations:

TALIBAN commanders have revealed that hundreds of insurgents have been trained in Iran to kill Nato forces in Afghanistan.

The commanders said they had learnt to mount complex ambushes and lay improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which have been responsible for most of the deaths of British troops in Helmand province.

The accounts of two commanders, in interviews with The Sunday Times, are the first descriptions of training of the Taliban in Iran.

According to the commanders, Iranian officials paid them to attend three-month courses during the winter.

Since the current administration seems determined to try and hug and love the Iranians into submission, I kinda doubt they are gonna do anything. But what excuse does the Bush team have for tolerating this in both theaters? We knew they were doing it and yet took no retaliation. That is disgraceful and they bear responsibility for the Iranian's assuming that there is no price to be paid. Long ago they should have bombed the well-known Iranian Guard bases where the bombs that killed our troops were made and they did not. Now the Iranian's operate with no fear of retribution, heck they probably expect another love letter from President Obama.

I would like to hope that the Obama team will add this to their extended use of drones and take out a few base camps in Iran. But I fear the focus is lost and Afghanistan will be left to the current state until the promised withdrawals begin Summer of 2011. Shame on both Bush and Obama for allowing this.