McChrystal: NATO trying to stop Iran's help to Afghan Taliban

May 30, 2010, 13:31 GMT

Kabul - The top NATO commander in Afghanistan, US General Stanley McChrystal, said Sunday that the alliance is working to stop Iran from providing weapons and training to the Taliban.

'The training that we see occurs inside Iran with (Taliban) fighters that move inside Iran, and then the weapons we see come from Iran into Afghanistan,' McChrystal told a press conference in Kabul.

The top US general, however, did not provide any evidence to back

up his assertions, other than saying that the alliance forces that have fought the Taliban insurgents for the past eight years have 'clear evidence of Iranian activity.'

'We are absolutely working against stopping those activities,' he said.

Such allegations have cropped up before, but McChrystal's comments now come amid increased efforts by the US and NATO military forces to turn the tide of the Afghan war by deploying tens of thousands of extra forces.

The total number of US-led international troops is set to peak at 150,000 from the current 130,000 by summer.

The US and other NATO countries have also exerted mounting pressure on Pakistan to clamp down on Taliban militants, who are believed to use Pakistani soil to plan their attacks against the coalition forces inside Afghanistan.

The Iranian regime, which has built up a favorable relationship with President Hamid Karzai's government, has in the past repeatedly denied that it supports the Taliban and in turn accused the US of playing a 'double game' in the war-torn country.

Afghan officials have also said they have no evidence that Iran is helping the Taliban.

Iran's Shiite government, which barely tolerates its Sunni minority, was nearly plunged into war with the Taliban regime in 1999. Since the ouster of the Taliban by the US-led military invasion, Iran has been one of the major donors to Afghanistan's reconstruction.

But US officials have said that the Tehran government, which has had rocky relations with Washington over its uranium enrichment programme, is trying to lead US forces to failure in Afghanistan by helping its erstwhile foe, the Taliban.

'Iran is a neighbor of Afghanistan and as any neighbor has natural interest inside Afghanistan, and I think in many cases the assistance they provide and the interaction is healthy,' McChrystal admitted, but said the regime's assistance to the Taliban is 'inappropriate.'

'To the degree that it is inappropriate, we are working to limit what it is now and stop it in the future,' he said.