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200 ~ TALIBANbut all the Persian-speaking ethnic groups who were resdomination.Iran had a natural link with the Tajiks - theythe same ancient race and speak the same language - butStontaS ^d been incensed by Ahmad Shah Masud's brutal attacks* t^Hazaras in Kabul in 1993. Nevertheless, Tehran now reahzedthatunlel it backed the non-Pashtuns, Pashtun Sunnis would dominateAfghanistan. In 1993, for the first time, Iran began to give substantialmilitary aid to the President Burhanuddin Rabbani in Kabul and theUzbek warlord General Rashid Dostum and urged all the ethnic groupsto join with Rabbani. ,,Iran's new strategy intensified its conflict of interest with Pabstan. Islamabadwas determined to get its Pashtun proteges into Kabul and boththe Pakistanis and the Saudis were determined to keep the Hazaras outof any power-sharing arrangement. Pakistan's adroit diplomacy in the1980s in providing a balance between Saudi and Iranian interests wasnow abandoned in favour of the Saudis.The collapse of the Soviet Union and the opening up of Central Asiahad given Iran a new impetus to end its international isolation. Iranmoved swiftly into Central Asia with a path-breaking trip by ForeignMinister AH Akbar Velayti in November 1991, who signed an agreementto build a railway line between Turkmenistan and Iran. But here too theUSA tried to block Iran with US Secretary of State James Baker declaring1992 that Washington would do everything to inblock Iranian influencein Central Asia. 6 The neo-communist i rulers l in Central Asia were initiallydeeply suspicious of Iran, fearing it wanted to spread Islamic fundamental-But Iran resisted this temptation and also forged close ties with Russia,following the 1989 ice-breaking visit to Tehran by Soviet Foreign MinisterEduard Shevardnadze when he met with Ayatollah Khomeini. The Ayatollah'ssanction of closer Iranian-Soviet ties just before his death, gavcrthenew Russia a legitimacy in Iranian eyes. Also between 1989 and 1993Russia provided Iran with US$10 billion worth of weapons to rebui d itsmilitary arsenal. Iran improved its standing in the region by forging linkswith other non-Muslim former Soviet states such as Georgia, Ukraine andArmenia. Tehran declined to support Azerbaijan in its war with Armenia,even though 20 per cent of the Iranian population « Azen and helpedRussia and the UN to end the civil war in Tajikistan. 7 Crucially, ran andthe CARs shared a deep suspicion of Afghan-Pashtun fundamentalism andthe support it received from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Thus, an alliancebetween Iran, Russia and the CARs in support of the non-Pashtun ethnicgroups existed well before the Taliban emerged.In contrast, Saudi Arabia made few state-to-state attempts to improverelations with Russia or the CARs. The Saudis took nearly four years