Russia, Iran ties with Taliban stoke Afghan anxiety

KABUL: Allegations over Russia and Iran's deepening ties with the Taliban have ignited concerns of a renewed ‘Great Game’ of proxy warfare in Afghanistan.

Moscow and Tehran insist their contact with the insurgents is aimed at promoting regional security, but local and US officials have expressed bitter scepticism.

"(Russia's) narrative goes something like this: that the Taliban are the ones fighting the Islamic State," top US commander in Afghanistan John Nicholson said recently. "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.”

"Shifting to Iran, you have a similar situation. There have been linkages between the Iranians and the Taliban," he added.

Russia has officially provided military helicopters for Afghan forces, but official and insurgent sources claim Moscow has simultaneously propped up the Taliban with arms.

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. Taliban representatives in recent months have also held several meetings with Russian officials in Tajikistan and Moscow, sources say.

"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. "We ask Russia and Iran to work with Afghans to defeat terrorism."

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.

Alexander Mantytskiy, Russia's ambassador to Kabul, insists engagement with the insurgents is benign. "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.

Some observers agree that Russian and Iranian concerns over the IS cannot be dismissed lightly. "IS 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 Centre in Washington, told AFP. "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."

Published in The Express Tribune, December 30^th, 2016.