The Wall Street Journal reports that the Iranian government is expanding its ties to the Taliban and even allowing Mullah Omar’s organization to set up an office in eastern Iran. The arrangement works as follows:
A member of the Taliban's leadership council, the Quetta Shura, set up an office in the eastern Iranian city of Zahedan in late May, according to a senior Western diplomat in Kabul and a senior Afghan official. Zahedan sits near the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan and on an easy transit route from the Pakistani city of Quetta, where the Taliban leadership is based.
Zahedan is an especially noteworthy location for this office. Not only does the Taliban now have an office there, but al Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups have long operated there as well. Yassin al Suri, a major al Qaeda facilitator based in Iran, is known to operate inside Zahedan. Members of an al Qaeda cell slated to take part in a Mumbai-style plot against European cities in 2010 transited through Zahedan. They utilized al Suri’s network. Members of the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) routinely do as well. http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/taliban-opens-office-zahedan-iran_649248.html
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