Iran Confirms It Provided Aid to Afghanistan Government, Plans to Continue

Iran’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the payment of aid to neighboring Afghanistan, a day after the U.S. said Iran shouldn’t interfere in Afghan internal affairs.

“The government has provided assistance,” the ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, said today at a news conference aired live by state television, in response to a question about Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s confirmation of the payments. “Plans for the reconstruction of Afghanistan have been followed, engineering projects have been executed, and they will continue in the future."

Iran has offered assistance in euros or dollars since ‘‘the transitional government of Afghanistan was established,’’ Karzai told reporters yesterday. ‘‘Sometimes it gives 500,000 euros and sometimes less,’’ he said, adding that his chief of staff, Umar Daudzai, receives the money according to ‘‘my orders.’’

The New York Times said two days ago that in August Iran’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Feda Hussein Maliki, gave a plastic bag filled with euros to Daudzai on Karzai’s personal aircraft. The Times cited an Afghan official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The payment, part of a stream that totals millions of dollars, was intended to promote Iran’s interests and to counter U.S. and other Western influence in Afghanistan, the Times said, citing unidentified Afghan and Western officials in Kabul.

‘‘We think countries must all help to lay the foundation for Afghanistan’s economic reconstruction,” Mehmanparast said. “Foreign troops’ excuses for being present there are not acceptable.”

Philip J. Crowley, a U.S. State Department spokesman, said, “We understand that Iran and Afghanistan are neighbors and will have a relationship,” according to an e-mailed statement yesterday. “But Iran should not interfere with the internal affairs of the Afghan government."

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-26/iran-confirms-it-provided-aid-to-afghanistan-government-plans-to-continue.html