U.S. Eyes Iran for Resupply of Afghan Forces

My friend Richard Sale writes for the METimes, here

"....The idea of using Iranian commercial purchasers and Iranian transportation channels is gaining in momentum as the U.S. and NATO logistics network rapidly deteriorates, U.S. officials said. "It's a mess," said former CIA counterterrorism chief Vince Cannistraro. ...
With Obama recently planning to boost U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the U.S.-NATO forces will require some 3,500 tons of fuel and 250 tons of water per day, U.S. officials said. The pressing urgency of the need was made worse when the government of Kyrgyzstan recently denied the United States the use of its vast base at Manas to backstop the air war and help with resupply. Russia offered railway routes to send in materiel, but loads were restricted to non-lethal goods, U.S. officials said....

It is hardly a surprise the Obama administration would turn to Iran since the best and shortest highway networks run between Tehran and Kabul.

According to the director of research for the Washington Institute for Middle East Policy, Pat Clawson, the Obama plan would have Iran make commercial purchases of food, water, toilet paper, and other "non-strategic items," then send them into Afghanistan via its "own commercial channels," he said. If approved, the bilateral arrangement using Iran "would substantially reduce the logistics burden of the United States," said Clawson.

Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brezezinski agreed, saying Thursday at a Senate hearing that Iran and the United States had engaged in bilateral dialogue on Afghanistan back in 2001. "We had a rather constructive relationship ... regarding the Taliban issue in Afghanistan," he said.

A former CIA official said that what Iran is looking for is "a quid pro quo" – an end to the covert activities set afoot by the defunct George W. Bush administration. These included a plan to set off a small electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) explosion near key Iranian nuclear sites that would fry the electronic grids essential to the operation of the program.

Using Iran as a base for U.S.-NATO resupply may already apply to more than "non-strategic goods." Although diesel fuel for allied forces is brought in from Pakistan, one U.S. intelligence source said that some 10,000 tons of jet fuel per month is already entering Afghanistan via Iran..."