KABUL — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used a brief visit to Afghanistan on Wednesday to lob insults at the United States and argue that international forces won't stop terrorism and will only lead to more civilian deaths.
Ahmadinejad said the United States was playing a "double game" in Afghanistan, fighting militants it once supported.
His comments were a retort to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates who earlier in the week accused Tehran of "playing a double game" by nurturing relations with the Afghan government while supporting insurgents to undermine U.S. and NATO troops. Tehran denies the allegation.
Ahmadinejad threw back the phrase Wednesday.
"I believe that they themselves," who are now fighting militants in Afghanistan, "are playing a double game," said Ahmadinejad, who has made several visits to the country. "They themselves created terrorists and now they're saying that they are fighting terrorists."
During the 10 years that the Soviet Union fought in Afghanistan, the U.S. supplied rebels with everything from mules to advanced weaponry, including Stinger anti-aircraft missiles that helped neutralize Soviet air power. After the U.S. money evaporated, the world watched Afghanistan plunge into chaos and eventually harbor the al-Qaida terrorist network responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.
While the United States has long-running suspicions about Iran's nuclear program, the two nations view the Taliban as a common enemy. Iran believes that the Taliban warped the Islam religion to suit its ideology. Taliban forces killed eight Iranian diplomats in the late 1990s, and the militant group makes money from drug-smuggling operations across Iran's border with Afghanistan.
But while Iran supported efforts to oust the repressive Taliban regime from power in Afghanistan, it opposed the U.S.-led offensive to topple the Taliban after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Iran is wary of a long-term U.S. military presence in the region.
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