DAR AL ISLAM - IRAN/AFGHANISTAN: IRANIAN WEAPONS REACH THE TALIBAN

US says Iran knows its weapons reaching Taliban

Iranian arms are entering Afghanistan and reaching Taliban insurgents in such quality and quantity that the Tehran government must know about it, the US ambassador to Kabul has said.

The charge is similar to that made by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates a month ago, rejected by Tehran as "baseless and illogical".

But it comes as Iran signalled on Tuesday there was a "high possibility" it would hold a second round of talks with the United States on Iraqi security in the "near future".

"There are clearly some munitions coming out of Iran going into the hands of the Taliban," said Ambassador William Wood.

"We believe that the quantity and quality of those munitions are such that the Iranian government must know about it," he told reporters. "Beyond that we really can't go."

The United States accuses Iran of stoking instability in the Middle East by arming insurgents in Iraq, aiding militants in Lebanon and Gaza and trying to build a nuclear arsenal.

Iran denies the charges and says the US military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Washington's support for Israel is the source of instability in the Middle East.

US officials said for several months this year they had evidence of Iranian weapons entering Afghanistan, but until Gates spoke a month ago, stopped short of linking the arms to the Iranian government.

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