The Washington Post, Kabul, 6 Jan 2012 – Worried that U.S. troops could stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014, Iran is mounting an aggressive campaign to fuel anti-American sentiment here and convince Afghan leaders that a robust, long-term security partnership with Washington would be counterproductive, Afghan officials and analysts say.
The Iranian initiative involves cultivating closer ties with the Taliban, funding politicians and media outlets and expanding cultural ties with its eastern neighbor. While the effort has been underway for years, Iran has been moving with increased vigor in recent months because the United States and Afghanistan are negotiating a security agreement that could set the parameters for a U.S. troop presence here after 2014. By all reports, they were very active, said the diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Iranian influence in Afghanistan. He said that participants in the meeting known as a jirga indicated that members of the group had received millions of dollars from Iranian proxies. But the participants nevertheless concluded that Afghanistan ought to seek a long-term security partnership with the United States. Iran has done little to publicize its overtures to the Taliban, but strikingly, it invited a delegation from the group to a state-sponsored Islamic conference in Tehran in October. Bringing the Taliban to the Islamic awakening conference took great courage and was a sign to the international community, said Abdul Hakim Mujahed, a member of the peace council. He said both Iran and the Taliban are being pragmatic now that they share a common goal of ensuring the Americans withdraw fully from Afghanistan. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, Mujahed said. Both sides are using this logic. Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said he could not confirm whether the group has dispatched envoys to Iran, but noted that the group wants to have a constructive relationship with all of Afghanistan’s neighbors. The Iranian Embassy in Kabul did not respond to repeated requests for an interview. U.S. diplomats and military officials in Kabul said they had no information about reports that Taliban representatives have an active presence in Iran. The United States has accused Iran of funding and arming certain Taliban commanders and playing a spoiler role in the war. Iran has sought to keep a low profile in its efforts to influence policy in Afghanistan, though not always successfully. Karzai acknowledged in 2010 that presidential aides routinely received bags of cash from the Iranian government, which he characterized as routine aid. Shukria Barakzai, an Afghan lawmaker who chairs the defense committee in parliament, said Iran has spent millions of dollars expanding its influence in Afghanistan.
‘Iran is a cancer’, she said. ‘It has affected all the Afghan government and non-governmental bodies. They are everywhere: in the higher education system, working with the media, working with civil society’.
 Another lawmaker, Fauzia Kofi, said Iran has strengthened its influence over Afghan institutions this year. Key among those is parliament, which is expected to vote on the bilateral agreement with Washington.
‘They have strong networks and a lot of money’, Kofi said in an interview. ’They go to different parliamentarians and tell them what to do and what not to do. They have become more active to try to keep this partnership from happening.’