Iran aids Afghanistan, but may have helped Taliban too: NATO general

Source: IHT/AP

KABUL, Afghanistan: Iran has given political and material support to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's Western-backed government, but it also may have aided the Taliban guerrillas as a way of hedging its bets inside its eastern neighbor, NATO's top general here suggested Monday.

U.S. Army Gen. Dan McNeill, in an interview with The Associated Press, said Taliban fighters are showing signs of better training, using combat techniques to pin down U.S. Special Forces soldiers comparable to "an advanced Western military."

Iran's possible role in aiding insurgents has been a hotly debated topic in Iraq, and there were allegations from some Western and Persian Gulf governments last month that the Islamic government in Tehran is secretly bolstering Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. "In Afghanistan it is clear that the Taliban is receiving support, including arms from ... elements of the Iranian regime," British Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote in the Economist on May 31.

Iran — already criticized by the West for a number of issues including its nuclear program — hotly disputes the accusation, saying it is part of a broad anti-Iranian campaign and that it makes no sense for a Shiite-led government like itself to assist the fundamentalist Sunni movement of the Taliban.

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/11/asia/AS-GEN-Afghan-Iran.php

Iran the gov't or factions with Iran. I think there is a big difference.