Tehran, Dec 21: Iranian intelligence minister Ali Yunessi has dismissed as "shameful lies" repeated US allegations that the Islamic Republic has been supporting the al-Qaeda network. "Even though we paid a heavy price" fighting the Taliban, "the Americans accuse us of helping the remaining Taliban and al-Qaeda. These are shameful lies," the Qods newspaper quoted him as saying today.
He evoked the "heavy losses suffered by Iran when it was the only one fighting the Taliban," and charged that the ousted hardliner Sunni Muslim militia was "created by the United States to dishonour Islam".
Iran fought a proxy war against the Taliban from 1995, when the hardline militia swept into areas along the Iran border and brought with it a massive upsurge in drug trafficking, an fresh exodus of refugees and a threat to Iran's strategic interests.
At that time the militia, supported by US allies Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, was openly courted by Washington.
Iran almost went to war with the Taliban in 1998, and since the militia was ousted a year ago Tehran says it has arrested and extradited some 250 suspected al-Qaeda members.
Washington, however, has accused Iran of providing fugitive members of Osama bin Laden's network with safe passage.
Yunessi also said Iran had recently foiled a US "plot" in Iran to make contact with "terrorists and provoke instability," but gave no further details.
"They should not repeat the mistakes of the past," he warned the United States. Bureau Report