Iran Categorically Rejects CNN’s Claim of Paying Bounties to Taliban to Target US Forces

“The US has engulfed itself in a quagmire in Afghanistan and the blood of the US soldiers is shed thousands of miles far from their homeland due to the wrong policies of the White House rulers and of course, this has yielded no results for the innocent Afghan people, but years of war and bloodshed,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Tuesday.

He strongly dismissed the CNN’s report claiming that the “US intelligence agencies determined that Iran paid bounties to the Taliban to target US troops and coalition forces in Afghanistan”, and said, “The US government has no answer to the family members of the US soldiers killed in Afghanistan and it wants to cover up its miscalculation in Afghanistan through media hype.”

Khatibzadeh called on the US to act responsibly instead of projecting the blame on others and end its catastrophic deployment in Afghanistan as soon as possible.

Khatibzadeh had also on Monday categorically dismissed the recent allegations by the US officials that Tehran was providing weapons to the Taliban in order to fight Washington's influence in Afghanistan.

“The baseless accusations by the US secretary of state are only a projection aimed at distorting the public opinion in Afghanistan from Washington’s aides to ISIL terrorists,” he said.

“The current situation in Afghanistan is the result of the US’ warmongering and interferences in the country,” the spokesman said, adding, “The US is yet to inform the Afghan public of the identity of the helicopters that supplied ISIL under the NATO disguise in Afghanistan.”

Iran has opposed the US military occupation of Afghanistan, and has expressed readiness to cooperate with any effort for intra-Afghan dialog.