By DPA
Washington : The US has "irrefutable evidence" that Iran is arming Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, defying a UN Security Council resolution, a top US diplomat said Wednesday.
NATO forces in Afghanistan have intercepted some of the shipments, which are coming from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, US Undersecretary of States Nicholas Burns told Cable News Network (CNN).
"There's irrefutable evidence the Iranians are now doing this and it's a pattern of activity", he said. Their alleged arming of a variety of allies in the region is "very violent and very unproductive activity by the Iranian government", Burns added.
A March 24 UN resolution bars Tehran from shipping arms abroad, he said.
"And here it is doing it in Lebanon, in Gaza, in Afghanistan, and in Iraq, so Iran is in outright violation of its Security Council commitments", Burns charged.
US officials in April said Iranian-made weapons had showed up in the hands of the Taliban. The Pentagon's top general, Peter Pace, said NATO forces in Afghanistan had seized Iranian-made mortars and explosives destined for the Taliban.
Burns turned up the rhetoric by levelling specific allegations. "It's certainly coming from the government of Iran", he said. "It's coming from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard corps command, which is a basic unit of the Iranian government".