Afghan president acknowledges getting cash from Iran [View All]

Source: CNN

Afghan president acknowledges getting cash from Iran
From Barbara Starr, CNN
October 25, 2010 7:26 a.m. EDT

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan acknowledged Monday that he has received cash from Iran.

His comments followed a report in The New York Times saying that Iranian officials once gave Karzai's chief of staff a bag stuffed with cash as "part of a secret, steady stream of Iranian cash" totaling millions of dollars. That stream, the newspaper reported, gives the president and his chief of staff a fund that has been used to pay "Afghan lawmakers, tribal elders and even Taliban commanders to secure their loyalty."

Karzai told CNN on Monday that the United States is and has been aware of Iran's help. And he equated the cash from Iran with assistance the United States has provided to Afghanistan.

The president said Iran has "asked for good relations in return and for lots of other things in return."

"The cash payments are done by various friendly countries to help the president's office and to help dispense assistance in various ways to the employees around here, to people outside, and this is transparent and this is something that I have discussed," Karzai said.

"We are grateful to Iran for the help that they are giving and to those receiving that help under my instruction," he said.

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Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/10/25/afghanistan.iran.money/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn