Posted on 08/14/2007 2:12:07 PM PDT by blam
Ahmadinejad's first Afghan visit ruffles US feathers
· 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 (UK)
The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, addresses a press conference in Kabul as his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, looks on. Photograph: Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images
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.
Today's trip came just a week after Mr Karzai, a key US ally, publicly disagreed with the US president, George Bush, about the nature of Iran's involvement in Afghanistan.
Addressing a joint White House press conference last week, Mr Bush said: "I would be very cautious about whether or not the Iranian influence in Afghanistan is a positive force." Mr Karzai flatly contradicted him by describing Iran as "a helper and a solution".
Departing from Tehran's Mehrabad airport, Mr Ahmadinejad paved the way to further deepen the disagreement by saying today's talks would cover arrangements for establishing Afghanistan's security and independence.
Describing Iran and Afghanistan as "two brother nations with common interests, cultures and histories", he told reporters: "The present condition
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
This picture is so damn funny (at least for someone who was in Iran). Ahmadinejad looks way more like an Afghan and Karzai look more like a Persian. You can also see the dirt and evil emanating from Ahmadinejad.
this is madness...get out ! get out now !
Not as funny as the Guardianista spin. Where is the objection of the Bush admin to the visit?
Hope our CIA has a few Soviet anit-aircraft missles around somehwere. When he gets back on his plane to leave the country, it would be nice to see his plane balsted out of the sky. The Iranians would appreciate our help in getting rid of this evil madman.
Karzai knows that Iran will still be around long after the US has cut and run.
Preferable to a costly nationbuilding project that would follow the smoke from the crater.
americans misunderstand persians, even friendly ones.
persian friends of mine in l.a. want respect; theirs is a thousands of years old culture.
and they want world political influence, altho’ they disapprove strongly of the mullahs and ahmadinejad.
As long as the Mullahs and nutjob are in charge, the Persians forfeit any chance at influence in world affairs. If their idea of ‘influence’ is pursuing nuclear weapons, wiping out Israel, arming Hebollah and stirring up trouble in Lebnanon, providing ied components to terrorists in Iraq, sheltering Al Sadr, and providing weapons to the Taliban, how can they expect anything less than scorn form the rest of the world>?
Respect and influence... They had both of them with the Shah.
Thanks to the united effort of the Western and Iranian Left and the Iranian Islamists their once great country now is an isolated rathole of terrorism.
there’s is a thousand year old culture that has some dusty rugs to show for it. Pygmy cultures have been around for thousands of years. So what. These guys as you have so aptly proven, have attitude and it’s not a good idea to let them arm up with nukes. That is all.
Karzai is very handsome man.
I especially love his hat.
I would do Karzai. But he’d have to keep his hat on.
wtf? this aint huffpo.
Are you kidding?
no. not really. they mfg a lot of drugs do they? autos? making new inroads into lith ion tech? Look here see, Islam prides itself in revealing all. That doesn’t lend itself to curiousity about things. they don’t make shit nor are they curious. Whatever they figured out with stars or some shit 2 thousand years ago doesn’t do me a crap of good.
and the ones in LA don’t count. They have repudiated their roots just as much as the typical protestant english feller repudiated his roots when he booked europe back in the day. And if you don’t well that’s a big part of the problem.
Why should anything Ahmadinejad does ruffle our feathers? We just need to keep him, and his mullahs, in our sites. Talking is weakness to the Islamofascists. Eternal vigilance is necessary in this spiritual war. Massive prayer for our brave troops in the ME wouldn’t hurt, either.
You are right of course that today they aren’t positively productive at all. It pretty much went downhill with the conquest by Islam.
But the thousands years of pre-Islamic Persian culture and history have produced civilizatory milestones more significant than only rugs and figuring out stars. (First declaration of human rights, windmills, irrigation, federalism etc.).
I don’t say that’s relevant in dealing with Iran today, but I give credit where credit is due.
(P.S. I look just like Karzai, except for the hat, the beard and the swarthy skin...)
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