CNN reported that an assessment by US intelligence agencies indicated that Iran had offered financial rewards to Taliban fighters in exchange for targeting US soldiers and soldiers of the international coalition in Afghanistan.
The network added - based on the same assessment - that Iran has funded 6 attacks by the Haqqani Network, which is described as linked to the Taliban, including the suicide attack on Bagram air base north of the Afghan capital, Kabul, last December.
It quoted an unnamed source as saying that the US administration took a decision last March not to respond to avoid the threat to the peace process with the Taliban, which has been progressing since the signing of an agreement in the Qatari capital, Doha, at the end of last February.
In early July, the New York Times quoted US officials as saying that the United States intercepted electronic data showing large financial transfers from a bank account controlled by the Russian Military Intelligence Agency to an account linked to the Taliban.
The American sources said that Russia had offered rewards to fighters linked to the Taliban for killing American soldiers and other NATO and international forces in Afghanistan, but Moscow and the Taliban denied the accusations.
For its part, the administration of President Donald Trump questioned the veracity of the reports about the supposed Russian rewards for killing American and coalition soldiers, while the White House accused what it described as rogue elements of leaking information related to the Russian bonuses.