State: Iran, Syria Supporting Taliban, Iraqi Insurgents, Al-Qaeda
The Obama Administration’s State Department has reached a similar conclusion regarding Iranian and Syrian support for terrorism as its predecessor. The annual “Country Reports on Terrorism” has the following conclusions:
Iran‘s IRGC Qods Force provided assistance to the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Qods Force provided training to the Taliban on small unit tactics, small arms, explosives, and indirect fire weapons. Since at least 2006, Iran has arranged arms shipments including small arms and associated ammunition, rocket propelled grenades, mortar rounds, 107mm rockets, and plastic explosives to select Taliban members…
As Thomas Jocelyn notes on the Weekly Standard blog, Iran actually began sponsoring the Taliban in October 2001, if not earlier.
…Iran remained unwilling to bring to justice senior al-Qa‘ida members it has detained, and has refused to publicly identify those senior members in its custody. Iran has repeatedly resisted numerous calls to transfer custody of its al-Qa‘ida detainees to their countries of origin or third countries for trial. Iran also continued to fail to control the activities of some al-Qa‘ida members who fled to Iran following the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
And as for Syria, the State Department confirms they continue to sponsor insurgents in Iraq. Despite the happy talk of Syrian and Iraqi officials regarding progress in improving border security and cracking down on foreign fighter networks in Syria, the report says there have been “few tangible results.”
July 1st, 2009 at 9:48 am
[...] terrorism, proof that they are “linked” to al-Qaeda is demanded. Once al-Qaeda’s refuge in Iran is offered as a counterpoint, proof that the regime knows of their presence and that the [...]