World | Afghanistan Iran Slips Karzai Scads of Cash Tehran's influence in Afghanistan is growing By Polly Davis Doig Posted Oct 24, 2010 7:06 AM CDT Copied Afghan President Hamid Karzai talks to Afghans in Argandab district of Kandahar province, south of Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Oct. 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Allauddin Khan) Afghanistan, never a bastion for the honest or politically uncorrupted, is taking hefty bribes from a new source: Iran. As the New York Times reports, Tehran secretly and continuously slides a key aide to Hamid Karzai literal bags of cash that amount to a multi-million-dollar "presidential slush fund" aimed at keeping Iran's interests close to his heart—and not incidentally, creating a rift between Karzai and the US. Iran's influence within Afghanistan is growing, notes the Times. A NATO official says that Tehran is also working to gain influence and unravel the Americans by financing everyone from the Taliban to parliamentary candidates, but the Iranian infiltration goes deeper: “I am very concerned that they have a lethal capability and presence inside Afghanistan and Kabul,” he says. Still, “We have no choice but to be friendly with Iran,” says one Afghan official. “It’s a hostile neighborhood.” Read These Next Gavin Newsom has filed a massive lawsuit against Fox News. New York Times ranks the best movies of the 21st century. A man has been deported for kicking an airport customs beagle. Supreme Court gives Trump big win on national injunctions. Report an error