Iran's president acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday that Afghan and Pakistani intelligence helped his government to hunt down the leader of the most dangerous ethnic opposition movement.Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad paid an official visit to Kabul, the Afghan capital, and disclosed the help that Iran received to arrest Abdolmalek Rigi, the commander of the Jundollah guerrilla group which seeks independence for the Baluchi minority.
Mr Rigi was captured about two weeks ago in an operation outside Iran's borders. During a press conference in Kabul with Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, Mr Ahmadi-Nejad acknowledged the role of his neighbours in this operation, and "in particular Afghanistan".
Jundollah has killed dozens of members of Iran's security forces, beheading one policeman in front of a television camera. Its violent campaign was centred on the Iran's south-eastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan.
There is speculation in diplomatic circles in Tehran that Mr Rigi's arrest possibly happened with a green light from the US - or even its assistance to Pakistani and Afghan intelligence. This might have been part of an implicit deal with Iran over the fate of three American hikers who have been held in jail in Iran since last July.
"There is no information that the US helped with the arrest, but it is plausible the US has done so to have its nationals freed," said a senior western diplomat in Tehran.
The three Americans were allowed to ring their families for the first time on Tuesday.
Iran accuses the US and Britain of financially and militarily supporting Jundollah in order to put the Islamic regime under pressure over its regional and nuclear policies.
It denies western allegations that Iran's Revolutionary Guards support anti-US militant groups in Afghanistan and Iraq. Instead, Iran insists that security in both these countries is in its national interest.
Mr Ahmadi-Nejad ruled out any interference in Afghan affairs, blaming the US military presence for the continuation of terrorism.
He questioned the simultaneous visit to Afghanistan by Robert Gates, the US defence secretary. "What are you doing in the region? You are 12,000km away," said Mr Ahmadi-Nejad.
Mr Gates earlier this week accused Iran of playing a "double game" in Afghanistan, with Tehran claiming to favour stability in its neighbour while simultaneously supporting militant groups. But Mr Ahamdi-Nejad responded: "They [the US] are playing a ‘double game'. They themselves have fed terrorism and now they claim they are fighting with it."
Mr Karzai stressed that Afghanistan would not allow its territory to be used for an attack on any neighbour, a reference to the possibility of a US military attack on Iran over its nuclear programme.
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