Bloomberg03/08/2010By Ladane Nasseri [Printer Friendly Version] Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Afghanistan tomorrow for talks with his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, his first trip to the neighboring country since both were re-elected last year. Ahmadinejad’s one-day visit will follow a trip to Afghanistan by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who met with Karzai. The talks will aim to expand ties between Iran and Afghanistan and ease conflict within Afghanistan, Iran’s state- run Mehr news agency said. Gates, who discussed with Karzai the success of the U.S.- led military surge against the Taliban, told reporters yesterday that Iran provides funding and “low-level support” to the group in Afghanistan. Iran says it backs the Afghan government and denies accusations that it provides aid to the Taliban. Gates and Ahmadinejad’s trips to Afghanistan come at a time of rising tension between the U.S. and Iran over the Iranian nuclear program. “Ahmadinejad’s visit just as Gates is leaving is part of a very sophisticated Iranian foreign policy move which they have pursued throughout the region,” Theodore Karasik, director of research at the Dubai-based Institute of Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, said today in a telephone interview. Iran is trying to be a regional power “by sticking its finger in a number of hot spots, Afghanistan being one,” Karasik said. Iran has repeatedly called for the U.S. to withdraw its troops from Iraq, another neighbor, and Afghanistan, saying their presence has sparked sectarian tension. Ahmadinejad reiterated on Feb. 25 that the U.S should “pack up and leave the region.”
