Report: Iran Paying Afghan President's Chief of Staff

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's chief of staff has been receiving millions of dollars in cash payments from Iran, the New York Times reported Saturday.

The advisor, Umar Daudzai, briefs Karzai each morning and is known for pushing anti-Western policies, the Times said.

Citing unnamed Afghan and Western officials in Kabul, the newspaper reported Iran had been using its influence in attempt to weaken Afghan ties to the U.S. and NATO, as well as further its own interests in the country.

The payments Daudzai receives are deposited into a secret fund that he and Karzai have used to pay the country’s lawmakers, tribal leaders and Taliban commanders to secure their loyalty, the report said.

"It’s basically a presidential slush fund," one Western official told the paper. "Daudzai’s mission is to advance Iranian interests."

Karzai, his chief of staff and the Iranian ambassador in Kabul— whom the Times says officials identified as once handing Daudzai a sack of cash—have declined to answer questions about the relationship between their countries. Likewise, the newspaper reported that several officials have said that there is no truth in the allegations.

Iran consistently viewed the presence of the U.S. in Afghanistan as a threat, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged countries in the region to cooperate with one another, instead of looking to the U.S.

"The issue of Afghanistan should be solved in the region. Others cannot solve it. They could not do it in Iraq," Ahmadinejad said during a summit of Farsi-speaking countries that included Afghan President Hamid Karzai in early August.

Foreign military commanders and some Afghan officials have also accused Iran of providing weapons to the Taliban, to help support their insurgency in Afghanistan.

Tehran denies the charges and senior Afghan administration officials say they have no evidence against Iran.

Click here to read more on this story from the New York Times.

The Associated Press and Newscore contributed to this report.

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Diplomats: China tries to block UN Sudan report

UNITED NATIONS –  China tried to block a U.N. report alleging that Chinese ammunition was sent to Darfur in violation of a U.N. arms embargo but apparently didn't succeed, U.N. diplomats said Wednesday.

The Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against Sudan met Wednesday afternoon and two diplomats familiar with the closed-door deliberations said China argued that the report by the committee's panel of experts should not be sent to the council. One diplomat said China claimed the panel was unprofessional and flawed, and challenged its methodology.

The diplomats said the committee chairman, Austria's U.N. Ambassador Thomas Mayr-Harting, agreed that the annex to the report would be updated with a letter to include additional information on sources. But they said the report itself would not be changed, and will likely be formally sent to the 15-member council next week.

During Wednesday's meeting, the diplomats said China got no support from the other committee members, who include representatives from all 15 council nations.

According to the diplomats, the draft report said Chinese shell casings were found after attacks against the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur with markings showing the ammunition was manufactured after 2009, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the report has not been published.

The Security Council initially imposed an arms embargo on rebels and the government-allied janjaweed militias in Darfur. In March 2005, it extended the embargo to include Sudan's government.

The Darfur conflict began in February 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in Khartoum, claiming discrimination and neglect. Khartoum is accused of retaliating by arming local nomadic Arab tribes and unleashing the janjaweed on civilian populations — a charge the government denies.

U.N. officials say at least 300,000 people have lost their lives from violence, disease and displacement, and 2.7 million have been driven from their homes.

The U.N. panel of experts reported last November that the Sudanese government and rebel groups in Darfur were refusing to abandon the military option and increasingly violating the arms embargo.

China has been a key force in developing Sudan's vital oil sector and buying the country's crude oil and has close political ties to the government. Its alleged involvement in supplying ammunition, in violation of U.N. sanctions, was first reported by Foreign Policy magazine's Turtle Bay blog.

According to the two U.N. diplomats, the latest report by the panel of experts was first presented to the sanctions committee on Oct. 4.

The panel alleged that more than a dozen types of Chinese ammunition were used by Sudanese government forces in combat with rebels in Darfur over the past two years, the diplomats said.

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