| Submit your comments on this article | |||
| Afghanistan | |||
| Iran now attacking the US in western Afghanistan | |||
| 2006-02-15 | |||
| Sitting in a grimy office at the end of a dank hallway, Police Chief Syed Ahmed Ansari tells of finding caches of explosives and hunting spies in his corner of western Afghanistan, far from the main haunts of Taliban rebels. He says his biggest worry isn't the Taliban -- it's Iran. "Iran is a dangerous neighbor. We know that terrorists are being trained in both Iran and in Pakistan, and we are in the middle," says Ansari, whose town is in a southeastern swath of Herat Province that borders Iran and Pakistan. Iran's foreign ministry has repeatedly rejected the accusations of interference in Afghanistan as "baseless."
The Iranian push here and elsewhere in the region seeks to take advantage of the shifts in power and relationships that have followed the U.S.-led ouster of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq -- wars that left large numbers of American troops on both sides of anti-Western Iran. Afghan President Hamid Karzai warns that interference from Iran and other neighbors is a dangerous game, saying an unstable Afghanistan will bring chaos to the region. "The consequences will be that this region will suffer with us, equally, as we suffer. In the past we suffered alone. This time everybody will suffer with us," Karzai told The Associated Press in Kabul, the capital. The 580-mile border that Afghanistan shares with Iran runs along three Afghan provinces. There are no big towns, and Afghan forces make few patrols, making it easy for people to sneak into the nearly empty region of scruffy plains, treeless hills and the foothills of the Bakharz mountains in the north. Security is a major concern for Ansari. His town of sun-baked mud houses may have the look of centuries past, but Shindand plays a strategic role for the U.S.-led international coalition as home to Afghanistan's only major military air base aside from Bagram, near Kabul. Yet his force has only 65 officers, two cars and no communications equipment to patrol an area the size of Manhattan Island that is roughly 240 miles from Iran. In an interview with AP, Ansari said Afghan authorities had collected disturbing intelligence about Iranian activities in the frontier regions. "From Iran they are bringing explosive material to Afghanistan. They don't want Afghanistan to be at peace because they are at war with the United States. One hundred percent, Iran is working against Afghanistan's safety," he said. Ansari said the intelligence indicated Iran is sending in spies and trying to stir up opposition to Karzai's government. "We conduct searches for explosive materials and we find stockpiles of weapons in areas around here, yet we don't have strong Taliban commanders from here, so where is this coming from? We know it is coming from Iran. But it is not an easy thing to stop," he said. Some experts say it's not surprising Iran would try to gain influence in its neighbors. Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, sees Iran's regional policy as "mostly defensive." "At one time, Iran sought the export of its revolution, but the failure of that policy has largely tempered such ambitions," Takeyh said.
Some 19,000 U.S. soldiers buttress Karzai's government in Afghanistan, while 136,000 are in Iraq, joining the previous strong U.S. Navy presence in the Persian Gulf. Washington's ties with Saudi Arabia are solid and there is now a U.S. alliance with Pakistan's military rulers. Iran has built more security posts along the border with Afghanistan, and Afghan officials say it even has put up a fence that encroaches 200 meters (yards) inside Afghan territory. But officials said Iranian activities go far beyond guarding against incursions. Before leaving Afghanistan last year for his new post in Iraq, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad accused Iran of sending the Al Quds Division of its Revolutionary Guards across the border to incite unrest and cause trouble for Western troops. A senior Afghan defense ministry official, who would not allow his name to be used because of the sensitivity of his country's relations with Iran, told AP in Kabul that recent intelligence revealed the Revolutionary Guards have camps along the border. He also warned of a nexus of interests emerging between Iran, Russia, Taliban remnants and renegade Afghan militia leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, saying they all want to see Afghanistan destabilized. "Russia is not happy with what is going on here, with the U.S. presence here. Russia wants Central Asia to be dependent on them and Iran wants Afghanistan as a buffer for them and as a place to make trouble for the United States," the official said. Mohammed Zaman, acting manager of customs operations at Islam Kala, western Afghanistan's busiest border crossing with Iran, said the Tehran regime is infiltrating loyalists recruited among the hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees living in Iran, some since 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. "They have their own friends among the refugees and some of these refugees are now in the government," Zaman told AP in a chilly, makeshift office within sight of the border and Iran guards. Graffiti scribbled on the wall of a housing complex for junior police officers 74 miles away in the provincial capital, Herat, attest to the support Iran has in western Afghanistan. The graffiti reads: "Long live Ahmedinejad," referring to Iran's hard-line President Mahmood Ahmedinejad elected last June. Zaman also said both the Iranians and Americans are active in gathering intelligence along the frontier. When the topic turned to the U.S. activity, Zaman's voice dropped to a whisper. His information was sketchy, he said. "The American soldiers come once or twice a week. They come and they search. We don't know what they are searching for or what they are looking for. They come in their own cars and do their searches without talking to us," Zaman said.
Since the ouster of the Taliban, Washington has sought to improve controls along the border by training Afghanistan's customs police and building a customs complex. The effort has been largely unsuccessful because of corruption, said a Western diplomat, who insisted on speaking anonymously because he feared for his personal safety in a region where he said he is vulnerable to Afghan insurgents and Iranian agents. His job in western Afghanistan is to keep an eye on Iranian activity, particularly in business. "This is less sexy but vitally important because Iran is using predatory trade practices, subsidized input and smuggled goods to undercut Herat businesses," the envoy said. "What Iran is trying to do is colonize western Afghanistan by making sure they are not strong competitors able to build a strong, independent economy." Al Haj Toryalai Ghawsi, an official at the Industrial Union in the provincial capital of Herat, agreed. "Iran is overrunning our economy in western Afghanistan. Iran is looking at western Afghanistan to have influence throughout our economy. They worry because they look at Afghanistan and see Afghanistan as part of America, and to have control they want to control our economy," he said. Abdul Ahad, a 50-year-old shopkeeper in Herat, also sees the Iranian encroachment. "Everything we have is from Iran. Look inside my shop, the biscuits, the tea, the sweets -- it is all from Iran," he said. He said he worries about Iranian intentions, although he also is suspicious of the United States. Others are more comfortable with Iran's influence. "We are Muslims. I don't want the American kind of freedom," said Gul Ahmed, a 50-year-old laborer. "We have our religion and our culture. There is no difference between our culture and Iran's culture." Just as the Tehran regime has been accused of using religious ties with Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority to undermine Iraqi unity, Iran allegedly relies on bonds with Afghanistan's Shiite minority -- about 30 percent of the population -- to work against Karzai's government Mohakik Nasab, an Afghan Shiite cleric who studied in the Iranian holy city of Qom, found himself jailed and condemned to death when Afghanistan's Shiite clerics council charged him with insulting Islam. He was freed after three months and the death sentence was lifted. He blamed Iranian pressure on the cleric council for his jailing, which came after Nasab argued in Women's Rights magazine that women are equal to men under Islam and that civil courts don't have the right to impose the death penalty on a Muslim who converts to another religion. "But what really got me into trouble was that I wrote that Iran was interfering too much in Afghanistan among the Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan to make them answerable to Iran. They want to use Shiite Muslims here for their political purposes like in Lebanon against Israel," Nasab said. "They are doing this in many ways. They give money. They train spies. You ask me what is my proof? I am in the community. I can see with my own eyes," he added. Naseer Ahmed Raha, who heads a youth group dedicated to developing civil society in Herat, also sees Iranian machinations in Afghanistan. "Iran never said it was against democracy in Afghanistan, but in these days Iran has promoted insecurity, has taken over our businesses, has encouraged mullahs in Afghanistan to talk for the benefit of Iran, mullahs to speak out against the American influence," he said. In Kabul, Karzai told AP last month that interference by Afghanistan's neighbors has been the bane of his country's existence, but he is determined to fight efforts to play his country's ethnic groups against one another. "We are bloody determined," Karzai said. "It is not going to be Pakistan playing the Pashtun, non-Pashtun game in Afghanistan. It is not going to be Iran playing this or that game, or any other country." | |||
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #16 "When the topic turned to the U.S. activity, Zaman's voice dropped to a whisper. His information was sketchy, he said. "The American soldiers come once or twice a week. They come and they search. We don't know what they are searching for or what they are looking for. They come in their own cars and do their searches without talking to us," Zaman said." Zarqawi spent quite a bit of time in Herat before taking over in Iraq. Rumors of Bin Laden and Zawahiri being in Iran would make me hope the Americans would spend a little more time in the province. The Pashtuns seem to keep everyone busy on the other border, providing cover for them to quietly sit all the action out. Where there is smoke, there is fire. |
| Posted by: Danielle 2006-02-15 16:41 |
| #15 Remember when the North Vietnamese Army put on Viet Cong pajamas? Same thing in Afgarbagestan. Our enemy is Muslims, plain and simple. Take out their genocidal leadership and the whole edifice of Islam will collapse. |
| Posted by: Spaviting Glavise6090 2006-02-15 16:35 |
| #14 I agree with Phil's analysis as well. I think the end game of all of this will be the carving up of existing states in the area along ethnic lines. This was done in Europe during the middle ages but never actually happened in the Islamic world because Arab imperial conquest followed by European imperial conquest and artifical border creations. (a) An independent Kurdistan that includes Kurdish land currently in Iranian/Syrian/Iraq and possibly Turkey. (b) an independent Baluchistan carved out of Pakistan, Eastern Iran and a sliver of Afghanistan. (c) An independent Pashtustan carved out of what is now Southern Afghanistan and the Northwest tribal areas of Pakistan. (d) Independent Shiastan carved out of Southern Iraq and the Shia Arab section of Iran (and possibly Shia section of Saudi Arabia) (e) Independent Punjab carved out of Punjabi Pakistan and Punjabi India (f) Sunni Mesopotania comprised of Sunni Iraq, Jordan, and West Bank with chunks of Syria. From the Saudi border down they are mostly the same ethnic group so I have no idea what will happen down there. Time frame is 15-20 years although some might happen sooner. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2006-02-15 15:37 |
| #13 Add this to the Rantburg Vernacular Table: MMs are Mad Mullahs M3 or MMM is the Moderate Muslim Myth Obviously, both Iran and Al Q want to destabilize Afghanistan. There needs to be a quick, overwhelming, and brutal ass kicking in Waziristan and whereever the MMs are staging for Afghanistan. That is the language that they understand. You cannot play footsie with these guys. If they mess around, they will be hurt, and they will learn. It has to hurt them personally to register in their brains. Google G'daffy and F111. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2006-02-15 15:34 |
| #12 ...sees Iran's regional policy as "mostly defensive." "At one time, Iran sought the export of its revolution, but the failure of that policy has largely tempered such ambitions," Takeyh said. Riiiiight. And the Soviet Union just wanted buffer states and ice-free ports - purely defensive moves. |
| Posted by: Xbalanke 2006-02-15 12:28 |
| #11 This time everybody will suffer with us In other words, "We fooled around with the Taliban and got our Afghani @sses kicked. Now it's time for all of you to enjoy a chance." "We are Muslims. I don't want the American kind of freedom," said Gul Ahmed, a 50-year-old laborer. "We have our religion and our culture. There is no difference between our culture and Iran's culture." So much for the monolithic myth. When pressed, there is a unique and fatal solidarity amongst Muslims which will most likely spell their doom. We see it in the myth of the "Moderate Muslim" and we see it here when citizens of a newly freed country would rather revert to repressive theocracy than modernize. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-02-15 11:22 |
| #10 Remember, if Iran doesn't use a nuke, there will be no nuclear response. |
| Posted by: Perfesser 2006-02-15 09:24 |
| #9 The epicenter is still remains Tehran. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-02-15 09:20 |
| #8 I worry if Iran gets the bomb. But thier other policies I don't worry as much about. After all, all the things they've done recentley has just kept 150,000 soldiers on thier border. If they treated thier neigbors like equals, we'd probally have started leaving by now. |
| Posted by: plainslow 2006-02-15 08:59 |
| #7 You're right, phil, thanks! And of course, it's Shia Islam, not Shina Islam. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-02-15 08:59 |
| #6 I don't see the Paks going along with the MMs - after all they have the bomb too. With regards to the MMs meddling in Afganistan, two can play at that game. We should support Afgans stirring up things in Iran. |
| Posted by: Spot 2006-02-15 08:26 |
| #5 TW, you forget the Azeris who 20 million plus and 25% of the population of the Iranian (mini) empire. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-02-15 08:17 |
| #4 Sistani is getting pretty old and the Iraniofacists only need to wait him out. There are no strong Iraqi Shiite leaders with similar vision to follow him (Tater will try, but most likely meet an untimely demise after the Iranians are through with him.) |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2006-02-15 08:09 |
| #3 Ambitions like Iran's to empire based on a common feature amongst varied peoples, in this case Shina Islam, only work if there is equality for all those holding the common feature. In ancient Rome, that bind was the ability of any freeman with a certain amount of property to purchase the rights of citizenship if he wasn't born to it. Iran already doesn't treat its citizens equally -- there is discrimination not only against Sunni Arabs and Kurds, but also against Shiites who are not Persian (never mind all those who are other than Muslim; discrimination against them is a matter of ancient law and custom, and a matter of course). Iran is already dealing with riots and other small-scale uprisings in various border areas: the Kurds, the Tribals on the Pakistan border who kidnapped some Iranian soldiers recently, and so forth. Expanding Iran's empire will just expand their problems, even without outside help from interested parties. And let's not forget that Iran's Qom no longer is the only center of Shia power -- Iraq's Sistani sits in Shia's main pilgrimage city. And he doesn't yield place to those uppity Iranian ayatollas, even if some of the smaller players do. ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-02-15 06:44 |
| #2 Iran will come out of this as a rump Farsistan, the same way Yugoslavia resulted in a rump Serbia. Mark my words on this. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-02-15 05:46 |
| #1 Iran wants to create the United Islamic Republic consisting of Iran, Pakistan,Afghanistan,Uzbekistan,Turkmenistan,Kyrgyzstan,Tajikistan,Iraq,Syria and more if the faithful will follow will it work Yes it will Islam is a powerful binding factor that knows no borders Iran only needs one bomb not 20 or 30 to control the region time frame 5 to 10 years. Comments on this and helpful feedback very welcome |
| Posted by: T 2006-02-15 04:50 |