From: EurasiaDigest (digest@eurasianet.org)
Date: Wed May 07 2008 - 14:05:57 EDT
U.S. OFFICIAL SAYS IRAN SEEKS TO KEEP AFGHANISTAN UNSTABLE
Richard Boucher, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and
Central Asia, said in Paris on May 6 that Iran is seeking to keep
Afghanistan weak and unstable by delivering arms to the Taliban while
appearing to support the government in Kabul, AFP reported. "They
interfere in a variety of different ways, perhaps not as violently as
they do sometimes in Iraq," Boucher said. "But what we see is Iranian
interference politically, Iranian interference in terms of the money
that they channel into the political process, Iranian interference in
terms of playing off local officials against central government, trying
to undermine the state in that way." Boucher continued: "In many ways
they [Iran] do support the work of the government, but they also work
with the political opposition, they work with the local opposition."
Boucher told reporters that "several shipments" of weapons from Iran to
the Taliban have been intercepted. Preparations are under way for a
major international donors' conference for Afghanistan to be held in the
French capital on June 12. AT
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