US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said there "isn't any doubt" that Tehran helped al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters escape from Afghanistan into neighboring Iran.
"There isn't any doubt in my mind but that the porous border between Iran and Afghanistan has been used for al-Qaeda and Taliban to move into Iran and find refuge," Rumsfeld told ABC television. "We have any number of reports that Iran has been permissive and allowed transit through their country of al-Qaeda," he added.
The US newsweekly Time, in its issue due out Monday, echoed the report, saying that some 250 senior Taliban and al-Qaeda members were believed to have crossed the border into Iran via a smugglers' route just before the Taliban's Herat contingent fled in November.
"The Iranian Revolutionary Guard has an eye on everything that happens along the border," a Western diplomat in Afghanistan told the magazine on condition of anonymity. "Of course they know that Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters are getting across."
According to AFP, Rumsfeld conveyed he had indications that groups in Afghanistan were receiving weapons from Iran: "We have any number of reports more recently that they have been supplying arms in Afghanistan to various elements in the country," he said.
President George W. Bush earlier this week dubbed Iran, Iraq and North Korea an "axis of evil" and threatened reprisals against Tehran for seeking weapons of mass destruction.
Iran on Bush's Remarks
Meanwhile, Iran's government spokesman Abdullah Ramezanzadeh at press conference in Tehran Sunday termed the recent remarks of US President George W Bush as 'anti-democratic, uncivilized and fundamentalist', stressing that these remarks introduced a new ideology for the world.
Ramezanzadeh was quoted by the Iranian official news agency (IRNA) as saying that it is expected that President Bush might reconsider what he has said given that the remarks were not welcomed by the world.
"We believe that there is an organized illusion developing in the world to suggest 'imaginary enemies'," he declared.
"While the world is moving towards international peace, dialogue, tolerance and renunciation of violence, Bush's remarks resemble the ancient Roman tug of war which is never in line with the conditions of today's modern life," Ramezanzadeh pointed out.
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, the US President labelled Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an 'axis of evil' because of their alleged programs to acquire or develop nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. Bush also accused the Islamic Republic of trying to destabilize neighboring Afghanistan which is recovering from years of war and internal strife. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
