Ahmadinejad makes first visit to Afghanistan

Source: The Guardian

1.30pm
Ahmadinejad makes first visit to Afghanistan

· Meeting with Karzai in open defiance of Washington
· Iran denies US claims it is arming Taliban

Robert Tait in Tehran
Tuesday August 14, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, audaciously signalled
his determination to counter US global power today by meeting
his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, in open defiance of
Washington's wishes.

Mr Ahmadinejad led a high-ranking Iranian delegation to Kabul
in a demonstration of growing Iranian influence in Afghanistan,
where the US, Britain and other western powers are engaged in
a bitter struggle with the Taliban.

The visit - Mr Ahmadinejad's first to Afghanistan - was tailor-
made to provoke alarm within the Bush administration, which
accuses Tehran of destabilising its efforts while claiming that
the Taliban is being armed with Iranian weapons. Iran, which is
mainly Shia, denies helping the Taliban, whose puritanical Sunni
ideology it has condemned.

-snip-

The trip is intended to put the seal on a range of Iranian-led
reconstruction projects as well as consolidate areas of
cooperation such as combating drug traffickers.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,2148530,00.html

(somewhat) unified ME-U - with Ahmadinejad playing a key leadership role?????

That Iran would be the big winner from the Iraq war.