阿富汗总统卡尔扎伊星期一承认，他的办公室收受伊朗的大笔金钱。但是他把这称作是一种“透明”的金融援助。
卡尔扎伊总统星期一在喀布尔对记者们说，伊朗向他的办公室提供了九十七万五千美元，作为政府开销。卡尔扎伊说，这些金钱转手不是秘密的，跟来自美国的现金支付没有什么区别。
这个讲话是对美国《纽约时报》的一篇文章做出的回应。该报纸说，卡尔扎伊的幕僚长达乌德扎伊一直在收受伊朗的钱，以在阿富汗的总统府“促进伊朗的利益”。
卡尔扎伊说，达乌德扎伊是在阿富汗领导人的指示下接受这些资金的。纽约时报援引没有透露姓名的消息人士的话说，伊朗利用它的影响力来“离间”阿富汗人同其美国和北约捐助者之间的关系。
星期一伊朗驻阿富汗大使馆反驳而表示这个报导,是“荒唐的、侮辱性的。”
Afghan President Hamid Karzai acknowledged Monday that his office receives large cash payments from Iran, but said the money is a transparent form of aid.
President Karzai told reporters in Kabul Monday that Iran has given his office up to $975,000 for government expenses. He said the transactions were not secret and no different from cash payments from the United States.
President Karzai’s comments were in response to an article in The New York Times that his chief of staff, Umar Daudzai, has been receiving payments from Iran to “promote Iran’s interests” in Afghanistan’s presidential palace.
Mr. Karzai said Daudzai had been accepting the money on the Afghan leader’s instructions.
The Times quotes unnamed sources saying Iran uses its influence to “drive a wedge” between the Afghans and their American and NATO benefactors.
The Iranian embassy in Afghanistan on Monday dismissed the report as “ridiculous and insulting.”