		Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 10 - 16 September 1998 Issue No.394
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Two birds, one stone

By Salama Ahmed Salama

To the West, and the US in particular, there does not seem to be much difference between the rulers of Iran and the Taliban group in Afghanistan. Both countries are ruled by extremist Islamic men of religion who grow their beards and deny women most of their rights. Both take a cautious, if not outright hostile and confrontational, view of the West, and both are constantly accused -- rightly or wrongly -- of fostering terrorism and aiding terrorists. And the US has both under siege, declared in the case of Iran and undeclared in the case of Afghanistan. It threatens both with military strikes and carries them out when it thinks the time is right, as with Afghanistan recently.

Despite all this, US economic and strategic interests in both countries dictate a somewhat grim approach in dealing with problems in this region. The US, fully aware of what it is doing, deliberately exploits Iranian-Afghan differences based on the contradictions between Iranian Shi'ism and the variant of Sunnism which is defended by Afghanistan to the point of stupidity.

The current US position vis-à-vis the explosive military stand-off between Iran and Taliban is reminiscent of the situation preceding the start of the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s. The US and most of the Western nations encouraged this war by supplying weapons and intelligence reports in order to exacerbate the differences between the two neighbouring Muslim countries with the aim of weakening both at one stroke.

The disappearance of several Iranian diplomats in the town of Mazar Sherif has caused a silent conflict between Iran, which supports the Taliban's opponents within Afghanistan, and the Taliban group, which has succeeded in spreading its hegemony over most of Afghanistan and has been recognised by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The conflict has been exacerbated by Western intelligence and media reports that the Taliban has massacred Shi'ite tribes in Afghanistan.

Iran has denied that it intends to attack the Taliban, but it is common knowledge that large numbers of Afghans who are opposed to the group have crossed over to Iran. They may take the border area as a base for an attack.

In the meantime, the US is waging an international campaign against the Taliban for allegedly harbouring Bin Laden, whom US intelligence believes is behind the terrorist operations against its embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, and attacking what it believes to be terrorist training camps in Afghanistan; simultaneously, Washington has also warned Iran and neighbouring states not to intervene in Afghanistan or take military action against the Taliban.

This contradiction in US policy is proof that the secret links between the US and Taliban are still operational. It is not surprising, therefore, that the group should appeal to the UN to intervene to quell Iranian threats and work against the eruption of a war which would engulf the whole region.

Of course, the eruption of a new war in which Iran could become inextricably embroiled, and in which the military power of the Taliban is unleashed, will give the US the opportunity to bring the region, which is currently going through a period of anarchy and threatening US attempts to extend oil pipelines across Afghanistan, heel to toe. It also gives the US the opportunity to influence the Iranian regime, which is torn between moderates and hard-liners.

One fact remains clear: any conflict between two Muslim powers will lead to the defeat of both together. If the US succeeds in directing an effective blow at both Iran and Afghanistan, it will be the end of Islamic influence in the Central Asian republics.