Reuters
Karzai says his office gets "bags of money" from Iran
KABUL |
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Monday his office receives cash in bags from Iran, but said it is a transparent form of aid that helps cover expenses at the Presidential Palace and the United States makes similar payments.
The comments came after a report on Sunday that Karzai's chief of staff, Omar Dawoodzai, receives covert bagfuls of money -- possibly as much as $6 million in a single payment -- from neighboring Iran in a bid to secure influence and loyalty.
The New York Times, citing an unnamed Afghan official, said that millions of dollars in cash channeled from Iran have been used to pay Afghan lawmakers, tribal elders and Taliban commanders.
Karzai said he gets money from several "friendly countries" but named only the United States and Iran, the latter contributing up to 700,000 euros ($976,500) twice a year.
He would continue to ask for Iranian money, he added.
"The government of Iran assists (my) office with five or six or seven hundred thousand euros once or twice a year, which is official aid," Karzai told reporters at a joint press conference in Kabul with visiting Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon.
"This is transparent, this is something that I have discussed even with (former) President George (W) Bush, nothing is hidden, the United States is doing the same thing...it does give bags of money, yes, it's all the same."
Karzai said the money was used for palace expenses, salaries and for "people outside," but gave no further details.
"Cash payments are done by various friendly countries to help the presidential office to help expenses in various ways to help the employees around here, and people outside," Karzai said.
"We will continue to ask for cash from Iran."
The insurgency raging in Afghanistan is now the bloodiest it has been since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban, despite the presence of 150,000 foreign troops.
Afghanistan and its Western allies are dangerously underestimating Iran's destabilizing influence on the country, a former governor of a border province who claims he was ousted for his criticisms of Tehran told Reuters this week.
WIDE INTERESTS, "DOUBLE GAME"
Iran has wide and growing influence in Afghanistan, especially the west of the country where it has important economic ties. Millions of Afghans were refugees in Iran during three decades of war and Dari, an offshoot of Iran's Farsi language, is one of the two state languages in Afghanistan.
Tehran joined talks with a high-level group on Afghanistan for the first time earlier this month, and U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke said the United States recognizes that Iran has a role to play in resolving the Afghan conflict.
But The United States periodically has accused Iran of helping insurgents in Afghanistan. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said earlier this year that Iran was playing a "double game" in
Afghanistan by being friendly to the government while trying to undermine the United States.
Tehran denies supporting militant groups in Afghanistan and blames the instability on the presence of Western troops.
Despite their suspicions, Western countries have praised Tehran's efforts in combating the drug trade. Iran has a serious heroin addiction problem, while Afghanistan produces nearly all the world's opium used to make heroin.
(For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here)
(Reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison and Michael Roddy)
Replies
have led us into a trap designed to destroy America.They are more concerned with being politicaly correct and getting votes(no matter what the cost)that they would sell their souls as well as destroy the greatest nation on
earth.BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW.
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