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Iran And U.S. Have Similar Intrests In Afghanistan Without Taliban

Aired October 29, 2001 - 05:37   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile we want to go back to the story that we've been following for most of the morning and the war on terror and talk about Iran where that country has denounced U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan. A lot of people feel their message rests more in what is not being said than what is actually being said.

For more on that, we go to Colin . He is an international journalist whose work often appears in "The Christian Science Monitor". He has been writing much about it especially in recent weeks, and he joins us from London today. Colin, good to see you.

COLIN BARRACLOUGH, INTERNATIONAL JOURNALIST: Thank you.

KAGAN: We've been hearing things from the Iranian government calling for things like an immediate end to the airstrikes. You would expect things like that, but as we were saying off the top, it's more what you're not hearing. It's almost like you were expect to hear even stronger criticism of the U.S. government and the U.S. military airstrikes than you have from that country. Why haven't we heard that?

BARRACLOUGH: There's a big difference between what Iran can say in public and what it says in private. In public, we have heard a little bit of the rhetoric that we've come to expect from the clerical leaders in Tehran. What we haven't heard is the real vitrol -- the real tough talk though...

KAGAN: Where is it?

(CROSSTALK)

KAGAN: Why not?

BARRACLOUGH: ...that we've also become used to. The Iranians -- the Iranians are not -- their true position is not the position that they're actually saying in public. They hate the Taliban basically. There is a strong dislike for the Taliban. They are not sad to see the Taliban leave Afghanistan. They are already planning how they will respond to the makeup of a post-Taliban Afghanistan.

They have a number of issues that they -- that they -- that they hold against the Taliban. They also have a big sectarian division between themselves and Osama bin Laden. So they don't see themselves as responding to the cause of either Osama bin Laden or the Taliban.

PHILLIPS: Colin, let me just jump in there. It might surprise a lot of people that the U.S. and Iran do have a lot in common when it comes to this. I think Americans understand why the U.S. government isn't happy with the Taliban, but what does Iran have against the Taliban?

BARRACLOUGH: Well Iran's differences with the Taliban go back quite a few years. It sees the Taliban as a creation of the Pakistani Intelligence Agency, the ISI, and by extension of a -- of a toy, a product of the U.S. foreign policy in the region.

It's very suspicious of Pakistan's intentions to try to influence Afghanistan through the Taliban. There are -- there are -- the Suni, the sectarian, Suni-Shiite divide between the Suni Taliban and the Shiites (ph) of Iran, there's also a little bit of snobbism that has to be said. The Iranians see themselves as a very civilized culture full of literature and poetry and so on, and they look down on the Talibans who are basically farmers, peasants from the East in Afghanistan.

And there's also one other issue in 1998 when Taliban took over the northern town of Mazar-e-Sharif. Taliban forces murdered eight Iranian diplomats and one journalist and Iran nearly went to war with the Taliban over that at that point.

KAGAN: And looking to the future, it looks like the U.S. and Iran have a pretty similar vision of this coalition type government that should be ruling Afghanistan once the military strikes are over, if the Taliban can be forced out.

BARRACLOUGH: They -- yes they do. They both support a transitional government, a partnership between the Northern Alliance and Afghanistan's exiled king, Zahir Shah. I think the one important difference is that Iran is unhappy, is uncomfortable with the U.S. taking the lead in planning the resolution of a post Taliban, Afghanistan. Iran has said again and again it wants to see the United Nations brought into this. It wants -- it wants a transitional government to be set up on the U.N. auspices.

Iran remains suspicious about U.S. intentions. They are very worried that this military operations will leave the U.S. with a substantial presence on Iran's eastern border and on Iran's northern border and they're very keen to bring the U.N. into this whole equation.

PHILLIPS: But is it possible that the U.S. and Iran have enough common views on the problems within Afghanistan and the future that they could actually get around their differences and maybe even become allies or perhaps that's too strong of a word.

BARRACLOUGH: Well I think allies is too strong a word, but there's been a process over the last two or three years, really since the election of Iran's moderate president Mohammad Khatami, in 1997 that has already been a process in which U.S. and Iranian officials have sat down together in the same room to discuss the future of Afghanistan -- not just the U.S. and the Iranian officials but all those countries who have an involvement in the future of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is just one of the issues where the U.S. and Iran actually have very similar strategic visions. Iraq is another -- is another issue. The problem of international drug trafficking is a third. I mean, in a -- in a way there are many issues where the U.S. and Iran can sit down and work together, you know, reasonably, practically.

KAGAN: Interesting conversation, Colin Barraclough from London. Colin, thank you.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Very interesting and complex picture there when you see all the pieces coming together like that.

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