Iran arming the Taliban?

WASHINGTON, June 19 (UPI) -- Speaking in Paris last week, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, after accusing the Iranian government of backing insurgencies throughout the Middle East, claimed that "Iran is now even transferring arms to the Taliban in Afghanistan."

"There's irrefutable evidence the Iranians are now doing this," he added. "It's certainly coming from the government of Iran."

Iran has denied this accusation, and has lodged a protest with the Embassy of Switzerland in Tehran. That embassy looks after American interests in Iran. The protest included a charge that Burns was fabricating anti-Iran allegations.

"Iran reserves its rights in light of international and internal law to thwart the U.S. propaganda campaign against Iran," said the letter. "The allegations being made against Iran run counter to the Charter of the United Nations and the international law."

Unfortunately, as to the charge that the Iranian government is funneling weapons to the Taliban, the Iranians have a point. Burns is fabricating anti-Iran allegations.

This incident immediately brought to mind a similar incident a few years ago.

Immediately after the fall of the Taliban, it was announced, with great excitement, that U.S. forces had captured an Iranian brigadier general who, it was claimed, was aiding the Taliban in western Afghanistan.

"I don't buy this," I said to my editor at the time. "The Taliban and al-Qaida are united primarily by a shared hatred of Shiites. The Taliban has oppressed and even killed Shiites in Afghanistan. Iran came within an eyelash of a formal declaration or war against the Taliban a couple of years ago when they murdered some Iranian diplomatic envoys. Now, we're supposed to believe that the Iranian government has climbed into bed with the Taliban just to get back at us? Something's not kosher here."

I was right.

Eventually, the government admitted, quietly, that there had been a misunderstanding about the Iranian brigadier general.

Much the same happened this week. A senior State Department official stood before the world press and claimed that the Iranian government was doing something really bad that made absolutely no sense. Hours later, in a quiet briefing room at the State Department, a spokesman admitted that there was no solid evidence behind so specific a charge.

According to spokesman Sean McCormack, who was responding to a question about the allegation, "We have not made that final linkage to elements of the Iranian government taking an active role in shipping those arms with an intent to arm the Taliban."

Had a reporter not asked about the charges, literally in the last three minutes of the briefing, the truth might never have come out at all.

The following day, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates did his best to back up Burns.

"I haven't seen any intelligence specifically to this effect," Gates added, referring to the charge. "But I would say, given the quantities that we're seeing, it is difficult to believe that it's associated with smuggling or the drug business or that it's taking place without the knowledge of the Iranian government."

Nice try.

Iran was a major supplier of the Northern Alliance, which drove the Taliban from power. The Iranians have provided massive numbers of weapons and massive amounts of supplies to various Northern Alliance groups. As a result, the country is flooded with Iranian materiel.

Yet, Gates, a former director of the CIA, claims that he can't see how the weapons are falling into Taliban hands without Iranian connivance.

Here's one way: The London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting has been monitoring the clandestine sale of stockpiles of weapons held by Northern Alliance groups in northern Afghanistan to the Taliban.

Meanwhile, Afghan President Hamid Karzai begged to differ with Burns and Gates.

"There's no reason that any of our neighbors should support the Taliban," he said. "We don't have any such evidence so far."

Afghanistan's defense minister also disputes the claim.

The late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, "We are each entitled to our own opinion, but no one is entitled to his own facts." It's high time this administration's officials understood that.

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(Thomas Houlahan is a Republican former member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. He is also the director of the Military Assessment Program of the William R. Nelson Institute for Public Affairs.)

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(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interest of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)