Gen McChrystal: No Proof Iran Sending Fighters or Weapons to Afghanistan

Says Some Taliban May Have Trained Inside Iran

by Jason Ditz, April 16, 2010

Despite several claims made to the contrary over the past several months, US commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal today conceded that there was no proof that the Iranian government has been sending fighters or weapons to Afghanistan.

Gen. McChrystal

At the same time McChrystal did note that some weapons and ammunition have crossed the border from Iran to Afghanistan and that some Taliban may have even trained inside Iran, but that they were not “operationally significant” amounts.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had last month accused Iran of supporting the Taliban behind the scenes, despite Iran’s formal ties with the Karzai government and long history of animosity.

Though the flow of arms back and forth across the long, largely unguarded border is perhaps unsurprising, the claims of training camps operating in the area around Zahedan suggest that the more reasonable explanation is that Taliban receiving training there could well be forging ties with the Sunni insurgency in the Sistan-Balochistan region as opposed to the Iranian government.

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