DAR AL ISLAM-AFGHANISTAN: IRAN WANTS TO BE A BIGGER PLAYER IN AFGHANISTAN

Iran in Afghanistan: Paving with good intentions?
Iran seizes chance to wield influence

ISLAM QALA, Afghanistan: Two years ago, foreign engineers built a new highway through the desert of western Afghanistan, past this ancient trading post and on to the outside world. Nearby, they strung a high-voltage power line and laid a fiber-optic cable, marked with red posts, that provides telephone and Internet access to the region.

The modernization comes with a message. Every 8 to 16 kilometers, or 5 to 10 miles, road signs offer quotations from the Koran. "Forgive us, God," declares one. "God is clear to everyone," says another. A graceful mosque rises roadside, with a green glass dome and Koranic inscriptions in blue tile. The style is unmistakably Iranian.

All of this is fruit of Iran's drive to become a bigger player in Afghanistan, as it exploits new opportunities to spread its influence and ideas farther across the Middle East.

The rise of Hezbollah, with Iran's support, has demonstrated the extent of Tehran's sway in Lebanon, and the American toppling of Saddam Hussein has allowed it to expand its influence in Iraq. Iran has been making inroads into Afghanistan, as well.

During the tumultuous 1980s and 1990s, Iran shipped money and arms to groups fighting first the Soviet occupation and later the Taliban government. But since the United States and its allies removed the Taliban in 2001, Iran has taken advantage of the central government's weakness to pursue a more nuanced strategy: part reconstruction, part education and part propaganda.

Iran has distributed its largess, more than $200 million in all, mostly here in the west but also in the capital, Kabul. It has set up border posts against the heroin trade and next year will begin work on new road and construction projects and a rail line linking the countries. In Kabul, its projects include a new medical center and a water-testing laboratory.

The Iranian ambassador, Muhammad Reza Bahrami, portrayed his government's activities as neighborly good works, with a certain self-interest. Iran, he said, was eager to avoid repeating the calamities of the last 20 years, when two million Afghan refugees streamed over the border.

"Our strategy in Afghanistan is based on security, stability and developing a strong central government," he said. "It not only benefits the Afghan people, it's in our national interest."

Still, there are indications of other motives. Iranian radio stations are broadcasting anti-American propaganda into Afghanistan. Moderate Shiite leaders in Afghanistan say Tehran is funneling money to conservative Shiite religious schools and former warlords with longstanding ties to Iranian intelligence agencies.

And as the dispute over Iran's nuclear program has escalated, leading the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran on Saturday, Iranian intelligence activity has increased across Afghanistan, American and Afghan officials say. This has included not just surveillance and information collection but the recruitment of a network of pro-Iranian operatives who could attack American targets in Afghanistan. Last week, in London, British officials charged the interpreter for NATO's commanding general in Afghanistan with passing secrets to Iran.

Discerning Iranian motives, however, is notoriously difficult. Government factions often have competing agendas. Even so, the question of Iran's intentions in Afghanistan has come under a microscope in recent weeks amid debate in Washington over whether to deal with Tehran as part of a possible solution in Iraq. Some American officials suggest that Iran's seeming cooperation in Afghanistan may be something of a model for Iraq.

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It doesn't take a genius to figure out what Iran's intentions are...My gawd, what kind of mental midgets reside and work within the Beltway in Washington D.C.?!?

Iran announces its intentions almost on a daily basis and these Beltway Retards still say it is 'notoriously difficult to discern Iran's intentions'...


Pertinent Links:

1) Iran in Afghanistan: Paving with good intentions?