U.S., Iranian Officials Clash Over Afghanistan

By Alan Elsner and Paul Taylor

Friday February 1 5:39 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. and Iranian officials clashed at the World Economic Forum on Friday over the future of Afghanistan, as an Iranian deputy foreign minister rejecting suggestions that his country was meddling by supporting a local warlord.

Iran's Mohammad Hossein Adeli responded angrily when some delegates at a session on the future of Afghanistan said his country posed a major geopolitical risk to the stability of the war-torn country now trying to emerge from over 20 years of civil war and foreign occupation.

``Accusing Iran of interference in Afghanistan in a negative way is a mistake and is ignoring the facts on the ground,'' he said.

The session had devolved into group discussions at individual tables of delegates. The accusation of Iranian meddling emerged from the table where State Department's director of policy planning Richard Haass was sitting.

``It was not a surprise to have that kind of difference from table number seven,'' Adeli said, referring to Haass' table.

During the discussion, Haass had said Iranian officials were active on the ground in Afghanistan, building up the forces of Herat-based warlord Ismail Khan, who controls much of the west of the country, which borders Iran.

Haass also said that if the Iranians continued their activities, Pakistan would have to react by supporting other factions and the chances of a new central government establishing effective control of the country would dissipate.

The U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, said earlier this month there was reason to fear Iran was trying to stir up trouble for the new Afghan government.

But Adeli said the Iranian government had helped the United States in its war against the former Taliban rulers of Afghanistan.

Tensions between the two countries have risen sharply this week after President Bush said in his State of the Union address on Tuesday that Iran was part of an ``axis of evil.'' He grouped Tehran with Iraq and North Korea as countries trying to develop weapons of mass destruction.

Haass said Bush's words reflected U.S. exasperation with Iranian meddling in Afghanistan as well as its alleged involvement in a recent shipment of weapons to Palestinians fighting Israel.

Earlier, Adeli told Reuters that the emergence of an internationally credible interim authority in Afghanistan was ''the result of sincere and effective cooperation provided by Iran to the international coalition.''

He said Iran had not been properly rewarded for its help in the removal of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and in helping to create a viable coalition government at U.N.-sponsored talks in Bonn, Germany late last year.

``When the Americans were stuck after three or four weeks of air bombardment ... it was the implication and explicit cooperation of Iran and the National Alliance that opened up a new field to make the military operation victorious,'' Adeli said.

``As a result of the new environment, some sort of rapprochement (between Iran and the United States) was created. So the recent statement (by Bush) was some sort of shock to that environment, it was inconsistent with some of the signals we were getting,'' he said.

``Is this the kind of message or reward we should get or not?'' Adeli asked.

He also said Iran sought a relationship in which it could cooperate with the United States in areas of mutual interest such as Central Asian stability and the fight against terrorism and drugs even if they differed on other areas, such as the Arab-Israeli conflict.