An attempt to put the blame on Iran for paying bounties to Taliban fighters for targeting coalition troops might be guided by the failure to renew sanctions against Tehran, looking for additional arguments for the UN to adopt such resolution once again or implement UN Resolution 2231 unilaterally.
According to CNN, US intelligence agencies assessed that Iran offered bounties to Taliban fighters for targeting American and coalition troops in Afghanistan, identifying payments linked to at least six attacks carried out by the militant group just last year alone, including a suicide bombing at a US air base in December.
The report comes nearly two months after allegations that Russia was paying bounties to Taliban fighters for killing Americans in Afghanistan. Donald Trump rejected those reports as a “hoax”.
However, Philippe Goffin, Belgium’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs and the country’s Minister of Defense, confirmed the fact of the Russian bounties paid to the Taliban-linked militants for killing US troops, and allows identifying specific terrorist activity conduct with Russia’s financial support.
The lansinginstitute.org published a survey covering Russians’ involvement in paying Taliban, and the victims seen, Bagram and Jallalabad case included.
Assumptions that the payments were made by Iran do not hold water. Most of the militaries died in the eastern regions of Afghanistan, Bagram and Jalalabad airfields, particularly, at a great distance from Iranian border.
Iran’s political leaders did not regard the US presence in Afghanistan as a threat. Tehran far more feared the Saudi Arabia’s rise in the region, alongside with The Islamic State in Khorasan’s rise in Afghanistan. Iran’s policy in the country is focused on protecting Afghan Shiites, accounting for one fifth of the Afghan population, being the subject to attacks by Sunni militias, including The Islamic State in Khorasan.
Iran’s interests in Afghanistan, therefore, partially coincide with those of the U.S.: to establish stability in the country, prevent growth of IS’s influence in Khorasan. Both Iran and the White House are considering the need to bring the Taliban into Afghanistan’s political system to increase regional stability.
According to Mahan Abedin publication in the Foreign Affair (Oct. 2019), Tehran will not target U.S. bases and troops in Afghanistan even in the event of escalating hostilities in the Persian Gulf, as that would guarantee turmoil and volatility on Iran’s eastern border for years to come. Iranian policymakers do want U.S. forces to leave Afghanistan, because they are convinced that the situation in the country can now be managed diplomatically. This viewpoint is similar to that of Washington.
This viewpoint confirms doubts about Iran’s activity against the U. S. Army contingent in Afghanistan.
CNN report focused on addressing Iran’s payments to the Haqqani Network continued on for roughly three months after the Soleimani strike, some officials involved in the process believed efforts to develop options aimed at countering the relationship were hamstrung by the ongoing peace talks between the US and Taliban.
The Haqqani family hails from southeastern Afghanistan and belongs to the Mezi Clan of the Zadran Pashtun tribe. This area is a subzone for targeting the US military, but the farthest from Iran. The diagram shows the Haqqani Network’s control area does not touch the territory of Iran. Thus, the Haqqani Network could carry out attacks based on the operational domain, but the assertion that Iran was paying bounties does not hold water.
The Haqqani network’s tribal connections in Northern Waziristan and the de facto regime that it has established with courts, law enforcement, medical care, and governance have often brought it great support from locals. Its familiarity of terrain, such as mountain passes, also grants them excellent access between Afghanistan and Pakistan. But not Iran.
Previously Afghan and American officials accused Pakistan of harboring the Haqqani network. The network allegedly maintained ties with the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Though the United States periodically accuses Iran of collaborating with the Taliban at an operational level, little credible evidence suggests such collaboration. Plenty of evidence, however, suggests that political ties between Iran and the Taliban are improving.
December 2018, Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, confirmed that Iran had begun holding talks with the Taliban—in coordination with the government in Kabul—in order to address “rampant insecurity” in Afghanistan.
Iran knows that it must keep its former foes close to keep bigger enemies at bay.
Abdul Rashid Waziri, a specialist at Kabul’s Center for Regional Studies of Afghanistan, explained that links between the Haqqani network and Pakistan can be traced back to the mid-1970s, before the 1978 Marxist revolution in Kabul.
There is evidence that HN has received financial backing from the Gulf countries on separate occasions, but there is no confirmed information that Iran coordinated its activity or financed it.
The facts the Iranian weapons were supplied to the Taliban fighters are well known. But such supplies do not mean Tehran is coordinating Taliban attacks or operations.
Just because Iran has “lines of communication open with the Taliban, it doesn’t mean they have operational control,” said Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington.
Accusing Iran of paying Taliban for targeting U. S. troops in Afghanistan, therefore, is most likely an attempt to ramp up pressure on Tehran, aiming to renew sanctions.
These charges, however, cancel out the well-founded allegations against Russia. The Kremlin, as a consequence, is given a free hand to discredit such allegations in future when information about its involvement in attacks on the United States appears, referring to the uncertainty of Washington regarding the Russian bounty.
The Kremlin, as a result, might be seeking to redirect charges against Iran and question allegations of anti-American operations, including the Taliban case and meddling in the U. S. elections.
