Iran might want U.S. help against al Qaeda -expert
Source: Reuters
By David Morgan WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - Iran could be interested in cooperating with the United States to combat al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, a leading U.S. expert on Afghanistan said on Thursday. Barnett Rubin, one-time adviser to former U.N. special representative to Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi, said Iranian officials have told him privately that al Qaeda poses a new threat to Afghanistan that could have implications for Iran's national security. "They believe that al Qaeda is the number one threat to Iran, maybe after the United States," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Iran's ruling Muslim clerics are Shi'ite, an Islamic sect opposed by the Sunni-dominated al Qaeda and Taliban. "They told me they had some information about it, and they would like to cooperate with the United States. But neither their government in Tehran, nor our government in Washington, had authorized the sharing of that information, which they found frustrating," Rubin added. The committee's top Democratic and Republican senators said they would urge the State Department to consider Rubin's remarks ahead of two conferences with Iran and Syria set to begin next week in Baghdad. "That's pretty important information," said Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the panel's Democratic chairman. "That directly relates to even the limited purpose that's been stated for meetings with Iran and Syria." Rubin did not identify the Iranian officials he met in Kabul last November. But he said they also expressed interest in cooperating with the United States against the Taliban. "Every time I meet with Iranians, they warn me that I should tell the U.S. government not to make a deal with the Taliban, because they're concerned that the U.S. is too soft on the Taliban," said Rubin, who is now at New York University's Center on International Cooperation. Levin and Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia said they would order Rubin's testimony sent to the State Department with a request that the issue be considered for upcoming talks. Afghanistan is bracing for a surge of Taliban and al Qaeda violence this spring. Last year proved to be the bloodiest since the U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban's Islamist government in 2001. U.S. officials say Iran is holding al Qaeda members under house arrest. Analysts have estimated that the members held by Iran could number as many as 100.
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