Iran aid to Afghanistan at $280mn

Press TV, Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:39:40 GMT

Iran has spent more than $280 million in the reconstruction projects of Afghanistan so far, says Iran's envoy to its eastern neighbor.

"A total of $220 million has been spent in the road construction projects while more than $60 million was provided in education, telecommunications, electricity, borders security, health sector, higher education and sports,” Iran's Ambassador in Kabul, Fada Hussein Maleki, told Press TV in an exclusive interview.

Maleki pointed out that Iran had pioneered in helping the Afghan people and offered its full support for the reconstruction of Afghanistan in international conferences such as those in Tokyo and London.

"The reconstruction of Afghanistan after several lengthy wars was an important issue and all countries had to contribute to it," he said.

“Iranian and Afghan delegations will be exchanging visits to each other's countries in the near future."

Iran and Afghanistan have about 1,000 kilometers in common border. The two countries have a trade volume of more than $1.3 billion.

HSH/AKM

Ahmadinejad to visit Afghanistan, says ministry

Tue Mar 9, 2010, 4:01 am ET

TEHRAN (AFP) –

 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to head to Afghanistan on Wednesday, his first trip to Tehran's eastern neighbour since the re-election last August of his counterpart Hamid Karzai.

"The president is going on Wednesday" to Afghanistan, foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters at his weekly press conference.

On Sunday, an Iranian news agency, Mehr, reported that Ahmadinejad was to make a one-day trip to Kabul on Monday to hold talks with Karzai on the challenges facing war-torn Afghanistan.

But an official at Ahmadinejad's office later denied the timing.

Ahmadinejad and several Iranian officials have repeatedly called for the withdrawal of US-led forces from Afghanistan, saying their presence was stoking the Taliban insurgency.

But despite their rivalry, Washington and Tehran are both sworn enemies of the extremist Sunni Muslim militia which ruled in Kabul from 1996, before being overthrown in the 2001 US-led invasion.

The United States has made a number of efforts to involve all of Afghanistan's neighbours, including Iran, in restoring stability to the country.

But they have been complicated by the lack of diplomatic relations between Tehran and Washington, and the standoff over Iran's controversial nuclear programme.

Shiite Iran, which has close ethnic and religious ties with Afghanistan, has long suffered from the effects of opium production in its neighbour, with easily available heroin fuelling a big rise in drug use at home.

Afghanistan is the source of 90 percent of the world's heroin.