Karzai Says Iran Gives Bundles of Cash to Aide

By MARIA ABI-HABIB

KABUL—Afghan President Hamid Karzai acknowledged that Iran has been supplying bags of cash to his office for years, and said he personally informed President George W. Bush of the payments in 2002.

Mr. Karzai told a news conference that his chief of staff and former Afghan ambassador to Tehran, Umar Daudzai, regularly collects the cash from Iranian officials, on his orders, and said the money is used for expenses for the office of the president. The statements followed a report about the payments in the New York Times Sunday.

The bundles of cash, each containing €500,000 ($696,000) to €700,000, were handed over by Iranian officials once or twice a year, he said. "We are very grateful to Iran," he said.

"This is nothing hidden," Mr. Karzai said. "The U.S. is doing the same thing, providing cash to some of our offices." The U.S. Embassy in Kabul said it had no immediate comment on Mr. Karzai's remarks.

The United Arab Emirates has also given the presidential office a cash donation of about $1.5 million, he said. A U.A.E. official in Abu Dhabi declined to comment.

"The cash payments are done by various countries to help the presidential office to help dispense assistance in various ways, to the employees around here, to people outside and this is transparent," Mr. Karzai said.

Iran has asked for certain things in exchange for the money, among them "good relations," Mr. Karzai said Monday. "We've also asked for other things in return. It's a relationship between neighbors."

Iran, which neighbors Afghanistan to the west, enjoys strong influence over Mr. Karzai's administration and the Afghan parliament, where Shiite politicians allied with Tehran have strengthened their positions in last month's elections.

Earlier this year, Mr. Karzai's government banned a popular TV channel that has been critical of Iranian authorities, Emroz TV, following a complaint by the Iranian Embassy; the channel was recently allowed back on air.

Coalition officials say Iran has also been channeling money and weapons to some insurgent factions.

Shortly before Mr. Karzai's news conference Monday, the Iranian Embassy in Kabul dismissed the reports of cash payments to Mr. Daudzai. "Such baseless rumors by certain Western media are raised to create anxiety in the public opinion and impair the expanding relations between the two friendly and neighboring countries," the embassy said, according to Fars News Agency.

Mr. Karzai said Mr. Daudzai was being targeted because he backed the implementation of a presidential decree that orders all private security companies to be disbanded by the end of the year.

The decree is causing growing concerns among Western governments, and some of the aid organizations helping implement the coalition's counterinsurgency strategy are beginning to wind down projects, saying they can't work without private guards in Afghanistan's deteriorating security environment.

On Monday, a Dutch aid worker was kidnapped by suspected insurgents in the northern province of Takhar, until recently considered safe, provincial officials said.

The decree will disband all private security companies in the country, except for those protecting foreign embassies and military bases. "We clearly told NATO, American and European countries that these security companies are causing insecurity in Afghanistan, causing human rights violations and explosions," Mr. Karzai said Monday. He said that the Afghan police are ready to step in to fill the security vacuum.

In a Sunday meeting between Mr. Karzai and an international delegation, which included the U.S. and U.K. ambassadors to Kabul and the coalition's commander, U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, Western officials expressed support for the decree but pushed to have foreign aid and development organizations exempted from the ban. Mr. Karzai has refused such a blanket exception.

In a separate incident Monday, local residents said an overnight North Atlantic Treaty Organization airstrike in Baghran district in southern Helmand province killed 45 civilians. Helmand officials said they couldn't confirm the civilian deaths.

NATO said conducted a ground operation targeting a senior Taliban leader in the district and used an airstrike to help kill 15 insurgents. A coalition spokesman, U.S. Army Capt. Ryan Donald, said NATO forces weren't aware of any civilian casualties in the operation. (Fonte: Wall Street Journal)