KABUL (AFP) – The White House voiced its concern about Iran's "negative influence" on Afghanistan after President Hamid Karzai admitted receiving bags of cash from Washington's archfoe Tehran.
Karzai insisted at a news conference in Kabul on Monday that the payments to his chief of staff -- sometimes as much as 700,000 euros (980,000 dollars) at a time -- were transparent payments for his presidential office.
Iran acknowledged on Tuesday that it had given "assistance" to Afghanistan in reconstructing the war-wracked country.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran, as a neighbouring government is deeply concerned about Afghanistan's stability, and has given much assistance for the reconstruction of Afghanistan," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters when asked to comment on Karzai's announcement.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran has done its part in helping Afghanistan rebuild and develop its economy and will do so in the future," Mehmanparast said.
The Iranian embassy in Kabul on Monday had dismissed the report as "ridiculous and insulting."
But White House deputy spokesman Bill Burton said: "I think the American people and the global community have... every reason to be concerned about Iran trying to have a negative influence on Afghanistan."
He said Iran had a responsibility to exert "a positive influence on the formation of a government there, and to ensure that Afghanistan is not a country where terrorists can find safe harbour, or where attacks can be planned on their soil."
The New York Times had reported Saturday that Karzai's chief of staff, Umar Daudzai, received regular cash payments from Iran, which is reportedly trying to expand its influence in the presidential palace in Kabul.
Karzai angrily denied that the payments were secret.
Cash payments "are done by various friendly countries to help the president's office... this is transparent," Karzai said Monday.
"This is nothing hidden. We are grateful for Iranian help in this regard. The United States is doing the same thing. They're providing cash to some of our offices."
Asked if the money came in bags, as reported, he said: "It does give bags of money yes, yes it does... it's all the same, let's not make this an issue."
He said Iran -- which has had no diplomatic relations with the United States for three decades -- has assisted his government with up to 700,000 euros once or twice a year in the form of official aid.
"He (Daudzai) is receiving the money on my instructions," he added.
US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Washington did not question Iran's right to provide aid to Afghanistan, nor Afghanistan's right to receive it.
"But we remain sceptical of Iran's motives, given its history of playing a destabilising role with its neighbours," he said.
The New York Times, citing unnamed Afghan officials, said the payments total millions of dollars and go into a secret fund that Daudzai and Karzai have used to pay lawmakers, tribal elders and even Taliban commanders to secure their loyalty.
"It?s basically a presidential slush fund," one Western official was quoted as saying. "Daudzai?s mission is to advance Iranian interests."
Thousands of Pentagon files leaked in July indicated that Iran is funding the Taliban nine years after the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the hardline Islamists from power.
"They want good relations in return. Lots of other things in return, Afghanistan and Iran have neighbourly relations," Karzai said Monday.
"We have also asked lots of things in return in this relationship, so it's a relationship between neighbours and it will go on and we'll continue to ask for cash help from Iran," he said.
The New York Times cited unnamed officials as saying that the Iranian payments are intended to secure the allegiance of Daudzai, a former ambassador to Iran who consistently advocates an anti-Western line to Karzai and briefs him daily.
Last August, when Karzai wrapped up a visit to Iran, Feda Hussein Maliki, the Iranian ambassador in Kabul, brought to the presidential plane a plastic bag filled with euro bills and handed it to Daudzai, according to the report.
"This is the Iranian money," the paper quoted an Afghan official as saying. "Many of us noticed this."
Iran was involved for the first time last week in international talks on the future of Afghanistan held in Rome and said it could help stabilise the country with US support.
Mohammad Ali Qanezadeh, director of the Iranian foreign ministry's Asia department, said then that Tehran was spending hundreds of millions of dollars in Afghanistan for children's education and reconstruction.
