Iran's illegal arms trade: 'Hypocritical and dangerous'

[Gerald]

Evidence is mounting that Iran is supplying weapons to the Taliban - and that British and other foreign troops are dying in Afghanistan as a result.

"Hypocritical, two-faced and highly dangerous."

Strong words from British Foreign Office Minister, Alistair Burt, referring to Iran's flouting of UN sanctions to sell arms to militant organisations like the Taliban.

Mr Burt's fury was sparked by a consignment of powerful rockets which was discovered in February in the hands of insurgents on an Afghan battlefield.

Investigators found the rockets were fitted with fuses which could only have come from Iran.

"Iran knows exactly what it's doing," Mr Burt told the BBC.

"On the one hand it claims to want to come back into the international community, and the next thing they're doing something that it knows is contrary to what the international community has decided."

The BBC has seen a letter from the UK Mission to the United Nations, addressed to the chairman of the Security Council committee on Iran, which states without hesitation that Tehran supplied the rockets to the Taliban.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-13545621


Note: 6 June 2011 Last updated at 23:24 GMT