Ahmadinejad's First Afghan Visit Ruffles US Feathers

The Guardian (UK) ^ | 8-14-2007 | Robert Tait

[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

[LibLieSlayer]

Respect is not given but earned.

LLS

[kinghorse]

I’m sorry that wasn’t nice. I’ll admit to wanting to do Karzai too. You know like hang out and do stuff. Play basketball. Talk politics. Do. Nevermind. He’s a handsome cat. Ahmadi-jihad is too for some of those folks no doubt. Saddam was so handsome the devil fell for him. So yeah these primitives like their handsome devils. Stalin was a hadsome cossack. His name was handsome as well. Stahl-in Roughly in Germanic translates to MADE OF STEEL. Stalin was a disc jockey name fer cryin out loud. And those cretins ate it up. Gotta love these primitives and their need to strut and strike fear.

[kinghorse]

I gotta come back to you on this one. Everything I read says they have always been about submitting to the king and always about deifying the king. Even today, as it was in antiquity, there is no formal law forbidding slavery. So I am not buying the great civilization sell. They have always had issues with us and our confounded free will. They tried to kick Greece’s butt but the farmers and artisans came together into a standing army and repelled the slave armies who sought to in turn enslave them. It’s pretty clear to me. Geographics have taught the people of the desert and mountains that the only possible federal solution is a ruthless one and that in turn creates zero sense of citizenship. I don’t want it. I don’t believe they were ever discovering all this wonderful stuff that we do or should use in our day to day lives or thought.

[Fishtalk]

Really....I was only kidding.

I’d fall down in a dead faint if Karzai were anywhere in my surround.

He has a dashing flair that brings out the female in me.

[Uncle Meat]

I don’t understand why we didn’t have a sniper on a roof with a bead right between his eyes.

[Uncle Meat]

Oh,I forgot.We let him run his mouth in our country,and the liberals creamed themselves.

[rmlew]

Where is a Stinger, Strela, or another ManPAD when you need one? If the CIA is any good they will appropriate a Sino/Pakistani ANZA and make proper use of it.