{"id":31442,"date":"2016-12-29T06:02:05","date_gmt":"2016-12-29T05:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/31442-russia-iran-ties-with-taliban-stoke-afghan-anxiety.html"},"modified":"2016-12-29T06:02:05","modified_gmt":"2016-12-29T05:02:05","slug":"russia-iran-ties-with-taliban-stoke-afghan-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/31442-russia-iran-ties-with-taliban-stoke-afghan-anxiety.html","title":{"rendered":"Russia, Iran ties with Taliban stoke Afghan anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"txt-textContent\">\n<div class=\"text fontsize_0 jq_Content jq_langdir\">\n<p>Allegations over Russia and Iran's deepening ties with the Taliban have ignited concerns of a renewed \"Great Game\" of proxy warfare in Afghanistan that could undermine US-backed troops and push the country deeper into turmoil.<\/p>\n<p>Moscow and Tehran insist their contact with insurgents is aimed at promoting regional security, but local and US officials who are already frustrated with Pakistan's perceived double-dealing in Afghanistan have expressed bitter scepticism.<\/p>\n<p>Washington's long-time nemesis Iran is accused of covertly aiding the Taliban, and Russia is back to what observers call Cold War shenanigans to derail US gains at a time when uncertainty reigns over President-elect Donald Trump's Afghanistan policy.<\/p>\n<p>\"(Russia's) narrative goes something like this: that the Taliban are the ones fighting Islamic State,\" top US commander in Afghanistan John Nicholson said recently, denouncing the \"malign influence\" of external powers.<\/p>\n<p>\"This public legitimacy that Russia lends to the Taliban is not based on fact, but it is used as a way to essentially undermine the Afghan government and the NATO effort and bolster the belligerents.<\/p>\n<p>\"Shifting to Iran, you have a similar situation. There have been linkages between the Iranians and the Taliban.\"<\/p>\n<p>Russia has officially provided military helicopters for Afghan forces, but simultaneously propped up the Taliban with arms, official and insurgent sources say.<\/p>\n<p>\"We are particularly concerned about loads of Russian-made weapons recently seized from areas on the border with Tajikistan,\" a senior Afghan security official told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>\"Cross-border support for the Taliban will further complicate the security situation in Afghanistan's north.\"<\/p>\n<p>A Taliban commander told AFP the Russian support had helped the insurgents overrun the northern city of Kunduz in October for the second time in a year.<\/p>\n<p>Taliban representatives in recent months have also held several meetings with Russian officials in Tajikistan and Moscow, sources say. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\"No country should be in touch with destructive groups who are the enemies of Afghanistan. This shows disrespect towards the victims of war,\" interior ministry spokesman Sediq Siddiqi told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>\"We ask Russia and Iran to work with Afghans to defeat terrorism.\"<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>- 'Great fear' -<\/h2>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Western diplomats in Kabul have privately voiced alarm that Russia is quietly filling its embassy ranks with Soviet era \"old-timers\" well versed in Cold War tactics, as relations with Washington turn sour over the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>And this week Kabul vented fury over a summit between Russia, China and Pakistan in Moscow which agreed on a \"flexible approach\" to remove certain Taliban figures from sanctions lists.<\/p>\n<p>Alexander Mantytskiy, Russia's ambassador to Kabul, insists engagement with the insurgents is benign.<\/p>\n<p>\"We have ties with the Taliban to ensure the security of our political offices, consulates and the security of central Asia,\" he told reporters this month.<\/p>\n<p>Lashing out at NATO, he added the allegations against Russia were an effort to distract attention from the worsening conflict and \"put the blame for their failures on our shoulders\".<\/p>\n<p>Some observers agree that Russian and Iranian concerns over Islamic State jihadists cannot be dismissed lightly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\"Islamic State may not have a deep presence in Afghanistan, but it has developed a profile there and its overall brand inspires great fear,\" Michael Kugelman, an analyst at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>\"We can't rule out the possibility that Russia and Iran are trying to hedge against the future possibility of a stronger Islamic State in Afghanistan by expanding their ties to the Taliban.\"<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>- Playground for superpowers -<\/h2>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Afghanistan has long been used as a chessboard for proxy battles -- from the 19th century \"Great Game\" of rivalry between Britain and Russia to the US funnelling weapons through Pakistan to Afghan rebels fighting Soviet forces in the 1980s.<\/p>\n<p>It has also served as a proxy war playground for nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan, which is also accused of playing a \"double game\" by endorsing Washington's war on terrorism while providing sanctuary to the Taliban.<\/p>\n<p>Superpowers jockeying for supremacy in Afghanistan could sow further chaos amid the unpredictability of Trump's foreign policy, analysts say.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Trump has given surprisingly few details on how he will tackle America's longest war.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\"Russia is waiting to see the next US move when Trump takes over,\" said Kabul-based analyst Ahmad Saeedi.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\"If Trump chooses to scale back the US presence, then the Russians will be eager to fill the gap.\"<\/p>\n<p>As for Iran, many in Tehran fear that a potentially hawkish White House under Trump will try to scrap its landmark nuclear deal with world powers, pushing them to retaliate by deepening ties with the Taliban.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\"Foreign powers fighting for their own self interest does not bode well for Afghanistan,\" said Saeedi. \"That only means more violence and bloodshed in the country.\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Allegations over Russia and Iran's deepening ties with the Taliban have ignited concerns of a renewed \"Great Game\" of proxy warfare in Afghanistan that could undermine US-backed troops and push the country deeper into turmoil. Moscow and Tehran insist their contact with insurgents is aimed at promoting regional security, but local and US officials who [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[2571],"class_list":["post-31442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed","ji_location-afghanistan"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3.1 (Yoast SEO v25.3.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Russia, Iran ties with Taliban stoke Afghan anxiety - JusticeInfo.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/31442-russia-iran-ties-with-taliban-stoke-afghan-anxiety.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Russia, Iran ties with Taliban stoke Afghan anxiety\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Allegations over Russia and Iran&#039;s deepening ties with the Taliban have ignited concerns of a renewed &quot;Great Game&quot; of proxy warfare in Afghanistan that could undermine US-backed troops and push the country deeper into turmoil. 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