WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iranian weapons headed for Taliban fighters were intercepted in Afghanistan in the last month, according to the United States’ top general on Tuesday.
Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, stopped short of saying Iran’s government had provided the weapons. Instead, he said he was not sure which Iranian “entity” was responsible.
His comments mark the first U.S. accusations that Iran’s Shi’ite government could be helping the Sunni Taliban. The Bush administration regularly accuses Iranian forces of supplying and training insurgents in Iraq.
“It is not as clear in Afghanistan which Iranian entity is responsible but we have intercepted weapons in Afghanistan headed for the Taliban that were made in Iran,” Pace told reporters in Washington.
“We do not know with the same clarity we know in Iraq who is delivering those weapons, who is involved,” he said.
During the years that the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, Iran supported Afghan groups fighting the group, including the Northern Alliance which played a crucial role in toppling Taliban after the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
In 1998, Iran almost went to war with Afghanistan after the Taliban government killed 10 Iranian diplomats.
Pace said Iranian-made mortars and C-4 explosives were intercepted in Kandahar by coalition forces.
He did not provide further details, saying he knew only that the weapons were made in Iran and were on their way to the Taliban.
Tensions are high between Washington and Tehran. The United States and others accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons behind the cover of a nuclear energy program, a charge Tehran denies.
U.S. officials and commanders also say Iran is fueling chaos in Iraq by providing weapons and training to Shi’ite militants. Last week, for example, the U.S. military said Iranian intelligence services were giving weapons to militants and that gunmen were being trained in Iran in the use of lethal roadside bombs.
Iranian officials have dismissed such charges.
Seal of the U.S. State Department.
In the latest report published by the United States State Department, it accuses Iran of being the top state sponsor of terrorism.  The report contrasts Al-Qaeda's interest in "global jihad" against the interests which Iran is said to be sponsoring.  Iran's focus is explained as Israel, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

The report describes Iran's interest in Israel as, "encouraging anti-Israeli terrorist activity, rhetorically, operationally, and financially."  Supreme Leader Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are accused of lauding terrorist attacks carried out by anti-Zionist groups.  The report notes that Iran's support for organisations involved in the Israel-Palestine conflict is not limited to Shia groups such as Hezbollah;  Hamas and others are, like most Palestinians, Sunni muslims.

Second, Iran is accused of playing a "destabilizing role in Iraq."  In particular, Iran's providing of IED to rejectionist groups in Iraq were mentioned in the State Department report.  The report also indicates that Iraq is "not currently a terrorist safe haven" but can become a "potential safe haven" for them.  Iranian officials deny that they are supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgent groups.

Third, Iran is said have aided the Taliban militarily according to General Peter Pace and other U.S. officials.  In Afghanistan, Iran gainsays a military role; it only acknowledges that it has helped with the reconstruction and revival of the Afghan economy.  

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards and Iran's intelligence ministry were specifically named in the coordination of the activities of the Iranian government abroad.

This statements of this State Department report are not novel.  In fact, in 2006, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, "The Iranian regime is today the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism."

Many Iranian officials accuse the United States of terrorism and a raft of crimes in return and "Death to America" chants are a regular scene at Friday prayers throughout Iran.  

Ayatollah Ebrahim Amini, the 2nd deputy chair of the Assembly of Experts has, for instance, said,

Other countries on the state sponsors of terrorism list were Cuba, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria.