Iran refutes claims by Pompeo that Tehran is arming the Taliban

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh denied there was any truth in allegations made by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that Iran was arming the Taliban. 

In an interview with Iran’s state media news agency IRNA, Khatibzadeh said: “What is going on in Afghanistan today is the result of the US’s warmongering acts and interference in the affairs of Afghanistan.”

Iran’s FPN news agency quoted him as having said Pompeo’s comments were made in an attempt to deflect public opinion in Afghanistan of the “US’s support to Daesh”.

He said: “The accusations leveled by the state secretary of the United States (Pompeo) is sort of shifting the blame onto others and an attempt to divert public opinion of the Afghan people from Washington’s assistance to Daesh (ISIS).”

“The US has not yet given public opinion demands an explanation for the nature of the helicopters flying in the airspace of Afghanistan under the control of NATO for supporting Daesh.”  

His comments come after Pompeo told Radio Free Europe last week that Iran continues to arm the Taliban while Russia has armed the Taliban in the past.  

“We’ve made clear we know the history, we know that the Russians have armed the Taliban in the past, right. We know that the Iranians continue to arm them today. So we know these facts,” Pompeo said.

“We’ve made clear to each of them our expectations, and we will do everything we need to do to protect and defend every American soldier and, for that matter, every soldier from the Czech Republic or any other country that’s part of the Resolute Support Mission to make sure that they’re safe,” he said, adding that “We have done that. We did it last year, we’ll do it again this year, and we’ll do it so long as we have soldiers in Afghanistan.”