Nato seizes Iranian weapons in Taliban hands

Nato confirmed that the weapons were uncovered in an operation by Afghan and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) forces on 5 February in Nimruz province, in the south west of the country where Aghanistan borders Iran and Pakistan. It has been reported that a British SAS team was involved in the operation.

Officials say the cache includes rockets which have twice the range of the weapons currently available to the insurgents, and were supplied by Iran.

Interestingly, ISAF last year told Channel 4 News that it believed there is “limited” Iranian support for the Taliban through weapons and training.

Foreign Secretary William Hague has condemned Tehran’s “completely unacceptable” behaviour.

He said: “This is completely unacceptable. It is not the behaviour of a responsible neighbour. It is at odds with Iran’s claim to the international community and to its own people that it supports stability and security in Afghanistan.”

“I am extremely concerned by the latest evidence that Iran continues to supply the Taleban with weaponry – weapons clearly intended to provide the Taleban with the capability to kill Afghan and ISAF soldiers from significant range. The detailed technical analysis, together with the circumstances of the seizure, leave us in no doubt that the weaponry recovered came from Iran. This is completely unacceptable. It is not the behaviour of a responsible neighbour.”

He added: “It is at odds with Iran’s claim to the international community and to its own people that it supports stability and security in Afghanistan. My Ambassador in Tehran raised this with the Iranian MFA earlier today. I call on Iran to act in the interests of a stable and secure region.”

Although the fact that it was an international force such as Nato that discovered and seized the weapons, evidence of the funneling of arms from Iran to Afghanistan has been suspected for some time.

One year ago, Channel 4 News found a sizeable stash of mines, mortars and plastic explosives – all inscriped with Persian writing – seized from the Taliban in Herat province in western Pakistan.

The Afghan border with Iran is almost 1000km long and is incredibly difficult to police. The border town of Eslam Ghalah in Herat is a key checkpoint for goods and human traffic entering and leaving Afghanistan.

According to the Afghan government’s own internal records, in 2009, 10.5 tonnes of weaponry was intercepted in Herat province alone – 60 per cent of which they say comes directly from the Iranian government.

The latest seizure several hundreds of kilometres south suggests a similar story all along the border.

Following the film, the Iranian Embassy in London denied supplying weapons to the Taliban.

“The Taliban are enemies of Iran and have killed a number of Iranian diplomats in Afghanistan,” the embassy said at the time.

“These allegations are fabricated to pervert attentions from the problems and damage created by foreign forces in that country.”