Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran
Iran acknowledged Tuesday it has been sending funds to neighboring Afghanistan for years but said the money was intended to aid reconstruction, not to buy influence in the office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Karzai said Monday he receives millions of dollars in cash from Iran, adding that Washington gives him “bags of money” too because his office lacks funds.
In Washington, President Barack Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, denied that. “We’re not in the big-bags-of-cash business,” he said Tuesday.
Earlier, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said some of the U.S. aid to Afghanistan is in cash.
U.S. officials asserted the money flowing from Tehran was proof that Iran is playing a double game in Afghanistan — wooing the government while helping Taliban insurgents fighting U.S. and NATO forces. Iran denies that.