Iran admits giving bags of cash to Afghanistan

[News_Editor]

Iran admits giving bags of cash to Afghanistan

2010-10-26 21:52:42 GMT+7 (ICT)

TEHRAN, IRAN (BNO NEWS) - Iran on Tuesday acknowledged for the first time that the country is economically assisting neighboring Afghanistan, following Monday's statement by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that confirmed the aid.

Talks about Iran giving Afghanistan money began on Saturday when the New York Times reported that the Iranian Ambassador to Afghanistan Fada Hossein Maleki had handed Karzai's chief of staff Umar Daudzai a large cash-filled bag.

During a Monday morning press conference, Karzai acknowledged it received money from Iran, adding that Afghanistan will continue to receive payments as part of the relationship between the two countries. He also said the United States was aware of the assistance and that it does the "same thing."

"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 said. "They have asked for good relations in return, and for lots of other things in return."

"And we have also asked for lots of things in return in this relationship. This is a relationship between neighbors and it will go on and we will continue to ask for cash help from Iran," he added.

He continued: "This is transparent, this is something that I have discussed even with 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."

Ramin Mehmanparast, a spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, on Tuesday acknowledged that the country economically assists Afghanistan. "Iran has helped Afghanistan to build the country and prepare economic infrastructures and it will continue to assist Afghanistan in the future," Mehmanparast said. "We believe that countries must help to pave the way to prepare economic infrastructures of Afghanistan."

According to the initial report in the New York Times, Daudzai had reportedly received between $1 million to $2 million dollars a month from Iran, which would later be distributed to lawmakers, tribal elders, and even Taliban leaders.

Karzai, however, explained that the funds are being used to help the presidential office and to help dispense assistance in various ways to the employees in Afghanistan, not to fund the Taliban or other insurgent groups.

"These cash payments are done by various friendly countries to help the presidential office and to help dispense assistance in various ways to the employees around here [in Kabul and] to people outside," Karzai said.

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