Fears of a double game

Unlike much of Afghanistan, there are no signs of war in Herat. Far from the dangerous haunts of the Taliban, life in this ancient town on the western border with Iran is peaceful. And there is an economic boom — all thanks to its western neighbour.

Machines of local factories never stop whirring during the day; there is 24-hour electricity supply here — largely provided by Iran. Its macadamised roads lined with pine trees are illuminated by streetlights, in stark contrast with the capital Kabul where long outages are frequent. And its markets are flooded with cheap Iranian goods: tea, rice and mounds of kimia dates.

Peace finally prevails in this 5,000-year-old town, which has been besieged and annexed several times in its troubled history. There has been little insurgent activity since the Taliban — who are despised by the locals for practising a murderous brand of Sharia — were routed out of power by the Americans, six years ago.

But beneath the seeming calm, Western officials warn, trouble is brewing. Accusations are mounting of Iran using Afghanistan — just like Iraq — as a buffer to expand its long-smouldering proxy war against America.

At one level, there is bonhomie, but on another, Iran's armed forces and its intelligence are accused of discreetly supporting and providing arms to the Taliban.

Proof of contempt

Admiral Michael McConnell, the US director of national intelligence, recently said there is "overwhelming evidence" that Tehran is supporting insurgents in Iraq and "compelling" evidence that the same is happening in Afghanistan.

Sharafudeen Stanikzai, a reporter for Radio Free Afghanistan, has documented and photographed Iranian-made land mines in western Afghanistan near the border with Iran in June this year.

Those weapons, he says, were marked "SPI" (Sepah-e-Pasdaran of Iran or The Revolutionary Guard). There's no Taliban in this region," he says. "It's hard to believe these weapons are coming in without the knowledge of the Iranian government."

Afghanistan shares a 580-mile border with Iran — which runs along three Afghan provinces. It is largely porous and Afghan forces make few patrols, making it easy to smuggle arms into the nearly empty landscape of scruffy plains, treeless hills and the foothills of the Barkharz mountains in the north.

Nato Secretary-General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, announced recently that a powerful and sophisticated type of roadside bomb — explosively-formed projectiles (EFPs) — (which are used extensively in Iraq) has been discovered near a university in Kabul. Capable of destroying armoured vehicles, these EFPs are lethal. After the discovery of EFPs, suicide and roadside attacks have become common in Afghanistan as well.

He said these weapons, being sent across the border into Afghanistan, are landing in the hands of Taliban fighters.

Also, recent media reports suggest lethal squads of Lashkar-e-Mohammad Rassoulullah, an Iran-backed jihadi organisation with an anti-American agenda, is infiltrating Afghanistan.

Analysts warn of a nexus emerging between Iran, Russia, remnants of the Taliban and the renegade Afghan militia leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, all of whom are believed to want to destabilise Afghanistan.

Iran is fostering tribal, ethnic and religious sectarian rivalry in Afghanistan to prevent the US' and Nato's efforts from succeeding and keep the country weak and insecure, local analysts say.

Playing both sides

Iran's intention, they say, is to pressure the United States — which is leading the drive at the UN to impose sanctions on Iran to force it to shut down its nuclear programme — by threatening the 27,000 American troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

"Iran is playing a dangerous double game," says Halim Fidai, the president of the South Asian Free Media Association in Kabul. "It is like a wolf in the clothes of a sheep, playing a quiet, yet active, role inside Afghanistan."

Iran is also being accused of destabilising Afghanistan by sending back a staggering number of Afghan refugees every day. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 100,000 Afghans have been deported in the past two months compared to 146,387 deported in all of 2006.

Iran gave refuge to millions of Afghans during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the subsequent civil war. About 1.5 million illegal immigrants live in Iran, along with another 950,000 registered Afghans. Many have found secure jobs and a stable life there.

However, though Iran has been — slowly, yet inexorably — deporting Afghan refugees, such an overwhelming pace is unprecedented. Iran is sending back nearly 2,000 refugees every day through the Islam Qala border crossing, about 75 miles west of Herat. Almost all of them are penniless. Their return is straining the already impoverished resources of Afghanistan.

Syed Hassan Hussaini, a lanky 27-year-old, had no possessions with him when he was picked up recently by the Iranian police, manhandled and stuffed into a bus along with other Afghan refugees, and dropped off at the Islam Qala border.

He was 2 years old when his family migrated to Iran during the Russian invasion. Syed was studying Dari literature at the Tehran University. When he was deported by the Iranians, he wasn't even given the opportunity to collect his belongings. And there is scant chance he will be allowed to go back and complete his education.

Nine family members are still in Iran — in hiding — and he has had no contact with them since he arrived in Herat.

"I hate Iran for doing this to me," he says. "They treat Afghans like animals."

The Iranian director-general of the Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrant Affairs, Ahmad Hossaini, denied allegations of abuse of Afghan nationals and defended Iran's decision to deport them en-masse. He said the rising number of refugees were sponging off the country's subsidised petrol, food and housing, putting tremendous strain on Iran's economy.

"The money we were supposed to spend on reconstruction for our own country has been spent on [Afghan] refugees. Today, when we count the cost, it is $5 billion a year, or $6 per Afghan per day," he says.

Deep connection

Since the fall of the Taliban, Iran's contribution to Afghan reconstruction has been stunning — almost $1 billion. The trade between the two countries has touched $260 million and is expected to rise further.

Iran and Afghanistan share deep ties. They speak the same language — Farsi — and they share the same religion and have a similar culture.

Lying just 75 miles from the Iranian border, Herat is emerging as a crosspoint of trading routes between central and south Asia. Iran is investing heavily in the region and major projects include the Dogharoun-Herat Road and the Milak Bridge. Iran also plans to establish a railroad system between the two countries.

Afghan officials are said to be more willing to work with Iranian companies than European firms because of the proximity and the lower cost of transportation.

"Given the proximity, there's much scope of doing business here," says Lailla Mercier, an Iranian-British businesswoman, who recently bought a three-year lease of a hotel from the Herat municipality. There are other Iranian businessmen in Herat who display the same confidence.

Until a few months ago, the Afghan Investment Support Agency had a regulation that a foreigner could start a business only in collaboration with an Afghan partner. That is no longer mandatory. Mercier is running the hotel along with an Iranian-American partner, Dr Hamadian, and they have jointly invested $600,000.

With such strong business and strategic interests in Afghanistan, many refuse to believe that Iran is fuelling unrest in the region. "There is no clear evidence that the Iranian government is behind the weapons discovered," says Dr Najeeb Ur Rahman Manalai of Kabul's Centre for Conflict and Peace Studies. "They might even be coming from some anti-Iranian insurgent groups operating in Iran."

Causes for discomfort

Iran's reasons to get American forces off its doorstep are many. Though Kabul has given repeated assurances it would not allow its soil to be used for attacks against its neighbours, Iran sees the US presence in Afghanistan as a threat to its national security. This feeling has been intensified due to the recent nuclear-standoff.

Details have also emerged that an American intelligence agency has been arming and training terrorists belonging to the anti-Iran Jundollah group in camps inside Afghanistan.

Such news is making Tehran nervous about American presence in its backyard. Manalai says that though continued American presence in Afghanistan is irreconcilable with Iran's vital interests, yet Afghanistan's long-term stability is also of utmost importance to Tehran.

Iran, a nation with a Shia majority, has a fundamental problem with the Taliban's virulent anti-Shiite ideology.

The Iranian leadership will not easily forgive the Taliban for killing thousands of Shiites in the Hazarajat region and in northern Afghanistan during its reign in Kabul. Tehran even came close to war with it when the Taliban executed eight Iranian diplomats in Mazar-e-Sharif in 1997.

Throughout Taliban rule, Iran was a principal backer of the Northern Alliance. Even today, the Afghan bazaar is awash with Iranian weapons that were supplied to the Alliance during the anti-Taliban resistance in the late-1990s.

The Institute for War and Peace Reporting in London has reported that Northern Alliance groups in northern Afghanistan are secretly selling their weapons to the Taliban. Nato contingents, too, have independently confirmed this.

It could very well be that this is the source of the controversial Iranian-made weapons discovered in Afghanistan.

The Karzai-led Afghan government has emphatically rejected allegations that the Iranian government is giving weapons to Taliban fighters. "We don't have any such evidence so far of the involvement of the Iranian government in supplying the Taliban," he recently said.

Analysts believe that Karzai sees Tehran as a balancing factor in Kabul's troubled equation with Pakistan.

Karzai has worked tirelessly to maintain a steady and cordial relationship with Iran, despite the tensions between Washington and Tehran.

"Afghanistan has a troubled relationship with Pakistan," Manalai says. "It can't afford making more enemies in the region."