A joint U.S. and Arab bloc of nations have taken a major step in cracking down on an Iran-Taliban co-op to proliferate militancy throughout the Middle East and southwest Asia. In a recent statement from the Riyadh, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin told listeners, “The United States and our partners will not tolerate the Iranian regime exploiting Afghanistan to further their destabilizing behavior…Iran’s provision of military training, financing, and weapons to the Taliban is yet another example of Tehran’s blatant regional meddling and support for terrorism,” adding that the U.S. is also “targeting key Iranian sponsors providing financial and material support to the Taliban.”
Mnuchin’s announcement came on the heels of an important step taken by the administration in its effort to disrupt regional funding for terror. On 23 October, the Treasury Department announced the most recent decision of it’s Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC) to sanction nine Taliban associates. The Center has its origins from back in May of 2017, when Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) formed the group under the direction of the United States. The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the office dealing with sanctioning assets of U.S. enemies, took point on the efforts of TFTC. There have been no more than three “designations” made by TFTC since it formed, and this one seems to be the most important. All of the Taliban leaders listed have are instrumental in the Taliban’s undermining of the current Afghanistan government, such as operating in various provinces as “shadow governors,” warlord leaders wielding power despite the presence of official authorities. One of the more important names on the list was that of Naim Barich, who is managing the Taliban’s relationship with Iran. The same Naim Barich was previously designated by the United States under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act) on November 15, 2012.
The Enemy of My Enemy
It’s quite amazing to consider how far enemies will go in the name of joining forces against a common adversary.
The Taliban and Iran, or more specifically the country’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), have traditionally been foes, their relationship being largely defined by the larger Sunni-Shia conflict. But the conflict between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and Iran goes farther than the age-old split within Islam. Back in the late 1990s, when the Taliban was coming into power, the group applied an outright anti-Shiite program which almost provoked a near-all-out war with Iran. During the Afghan civil war, the Taliban aimed to cleanse northern Afghanistan of Afghan Shiite Hazaras. In the wake of the Taliban’s advance across the country, thousands of Shiite Hazaras were massacred. In 1998, a small Taliban unit entered the Iranian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan’s third largest city, and rounded up and executed nine Iranian diplomats. Of course it was no secret that Iran was at the same time funding the alliance of factions opposing the Taliban in Afghanistan. Tehran at one point ordered a large Iranian military buildup of 70,000 troops along the border, which luckily did not lead to any on-the-ground conflict.
Considering their history, one would think that the Taliban and Iran would be the last pair to team up in the region. Beginning last year, however, both parties began to have increased problems with the United States that brought them together. While the Taliban began to suffer from President Trump’s troop surge, Iran started to face the collapse of the JCPOA, the Obama-era nuclear deal. 2017 was indeed the year that brought these long-time enemies together.
Targeting the Cash Flow
One of the most vital steps in combating militancy of any kind is cutting off groups’ funding at their sources. More and more emphasis has been placed on this effort by the United States over the recent period, and the results are very often quick in coming. The current crisis Iran finds itself in following the return of U.S. sanctions is a poignant example.
With any luck, the economic war against extremist groups will be able to help the efforts of America’s long wars on the ground.
