Iran is providing military equipment and other support to the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, Afghan Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Mohammed Sharif Yaftali told BBC News.

Yaftali’s comments were quickly walked back by his superiors at the Afghan Ministry of Defense who issued a statement saying he was “misquoted.” U.S. and Afghan officials, however, believe that Iran is quietly ramping up its covert efforts in Afghanistan in order to destablize the country and keep the U.S. bogged down in its longest war.

Iran’s surge in support for the Taliban coincides with the Trump administration’s decision to extend the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. Secretary of Defense James Mattis has signed off on the deployment of thousands more troops to the country, and President Donald Trump has pledged that the U.S. will not leave until adequate “conditions” have been met.

Iran shares a large land border with Afghanistan and enjoys trade and relations with many of its westernmost provinces. These provinces are hundreds of miles from the Afghan capital of Kabul, where the central government has the most authority.

“By providing limited support to the Taliban, Iran is hitting two birds with one stone: creating a buffer against ISIS and preventing the United States from using Afghanistan as a base against Iran,” Joshua Levkowitz of the Middle East Institute noted in March. “Iran will continue its marriage of convenience through providing just enough arms and training to the Taliban, which is different from a full-blown investment to change the equation in Afghanistan.”

“Iran has sent squads of assassins, secretly nurtured spies and infiltrated police ranks and government departments, especially in western provinces,” Afghan officials recently told The New York Times.

“Iran supplies us with whatever we need,” a Taliban fighter told The Wall Street Journal in 2015.

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