WASHINGTON, Sept 6: UAE security officials told US counter-terrorism officials in December 2009 that they believed India was secretly supporting Pakistani Taliban insurgents and Pakhtun separatists.

A Dec 15, 2009, US diplomatic cable, released by WikiLeaks, also shows officials of the Dubai State Security Department telling the Americans that they believed Iran also was supporting the Taliban with money and weapons.

Iran’s support, the cable claimed, helped the Taliban smuggle drugs, and facilitated the movement of Taliban and Al Qaeda members. SSD officials stated that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and navy were involved in these activities.

Officials from the UAE State Security Department and Dubai’s General Department of State Security conveyed such concerns to Howard Mendelsohn, an Acting Assistant Secretary of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis at the US Treasury Department. The meeting in Dubai focused on suspected Taliban-related financial activity in the UAE.  The US official told UAE officials they believed the Taliban were also receiving funds from the Gulf.