Iran's policy towards Afghanistan

Middle East Journal

Volumn 60, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 235-256

  Milani, Mohsen M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ETHNICITY; FOREIGN POLICY; MINORITY GROUP; POLITICAL POWER;

AFGHANISTAN; ASIA; EURASIA; IRAN; MIDDLE EAST; SOUTH ASIA;

EID: 33646671529     PISSN: 00263141     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3751/60.2.12     Document Type: Article

References (106)

1. See Hafizullah Emadi, State, Revolution and Superpowers in Afghanistan (New York: Praeger, 1990).
2. Assadollah Alam, Khofteghohay-e Man Ba Shah [My Conversations with the Shah] Vol. II, (Tehran: Tarh-e Nou, 1992), pp. 490, 491 and 495.
3. According to Alam, the Shah ordered him to pay $10,000 per month to Zaher Shah in Italy and to buy the exiled King a house as well. The money was to come from the Iranian government's "secret budget." Alam is rather ambiguous about whether the exiled King received the financial support from Iran. Alam, Khofteghohay, pp. 569 and 537-538.
4. See Abdulreza H. Mahdavi, Siyasat-e Kharege-ye Iran Dar Douran-e Pahlavi [Iran's Foreign Policy During the Pahlavi Era] (Tehran: Alborz, 1979), pp. 471-473.
5. Harrison argued that the Shah's policies "triggered the chain of events culminating in the over-throw of the Mohammad Daud regime." See Selig S. Harrison, "The Shah, Not Kremlin, Touched off Afghan Coup," The Washington Post, May 13, 1979.
6. See R.K. Ramazani, Revolutionary Iran: Challenge and Response in the Middle East (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986);
7. and Mohsen M. Milani, "Iran's Ambivalent World Role," in Comparative Foreign Policy, Steven W. Hook, ed. (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002), pp. 219-244.
8. See Mohsen M. Milani, "The Hostage Crisis," Encyclopedia Iranica, Vol. VII (New York: Columbia University, 2004), pp. 525-535.
9. Khomeini allegedly agreed not to incite the Soviet Muslims against the Soviet Union in exchange for a pledge by Moscow to veto any UN sanctions against Iran. See Adam Tarock, "The Politics of the Pipeline," Third World Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 4, August 1999, p. 805.
10. Hafizullah Emadi, "Exporting Iran's Revolution," Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 31, No. 1, January 1995, pp. 1-12.
11. Emadi claims that the Afghan Shi'ites received military training in Iran for up to six months and received a small monetary compensation as well. Some of them, he claims, were sent to fight Iraq. Emadi, "Exporting," p. 8.
12. Cooley claims that some 15 training camps were established in Iran. John K. Cooley, Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism (London: Pluto Press, 2000), p. 103.
13. See Sayed Askar Mousavi, The Hazaras of Afghanistan: An Historical, Cultural, Economic and Political Study (New York: St. Martin Press, 1997).
14. Vali Nasr, "The Iranian Revolution and Changes in Islamism in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan," in N. R. Keddie and R. Matthee, eds., Iran and the Surrounding World (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002), pp. 327-352.
15. For a perceptive analysis of the impact of the role of US weapons on the Afghan crisis, see Alan J. Kuperman, "The Stinger Missile and U.S. Intervention in Afghanistan," Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 114, No. 2 (Summer 1999), pp. 219-263.
16. Oliver Roy, "Afghanistan: An Islamic War of Resistance," in Fundamentalism and the State, M. Marty and R.S. Appleby, eds. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993), pp. 490-510.
17. Peter L. Bergen, Holy War, Inc. (New York: Free Press, 2001), p. 68.
18. Ahmad Rashid, Taliban (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), p. 197.
19. A US Congressional Resolution (October 1984) referred to the members of the Resistance as "freedom fighters." See Kuperman, "The Stinger Missle," p. 227.
20. Bergen, Holy War, p. 90.
21. See Shireen Hunter, "Iran's Pragmatic Regional Policy," Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 56, No. 2 (Spring 2003), pp. 133-147.
22. Quoted in Emadi, Exporting, p. 10.
23. For details, see Ali A. Jalali "Afghanistan: The Anatomy of an Ongoing Conflict," Parameters (US Army War College Quarterly), Vol. 31, Issue I (Spring 2001), pp. 85-98.
24. Rasul Bakhsh Rais, "Afghanistan and the Regional Powers," Asian Survey, Vol. 33, No. 9 (September 1993), pp. 905-922.
25. He studied in Saudi Arabia and received "hundreds of millions of dollars in Saudi aid," Bergen, Holy War, p. 54.
26. Fundamentalism Reborn, William Maley, ed. (New York: New York University Press, 2001), p. 35.
27. Cooley, Unholy Wars, p. 146.
28. Rashid, Taliban, p. 201.
29. According to MSNBC, Ramzai Yousef, one of the planners of the first attack on the World Trade Center in New York, and the "People's Mujahedin" (Mujahedin-e Khalq) were behind the massive explosion. See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4677978/, (p. 4).
30. They included Iran, Pakistan, China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Russia, and the US.
31. Human Rights Watch, Afghanistan: Crisis of Impunity. The Role of Pakistan, Russia and Iran in Fuelling the Civil War, Vol. 13, No. 3, July 2001 (c), p. 31. According to the same report, the Ministry of Enforcement of Virtue and Suppression of Vice was the most powerful "government organ" in Afghanistan, p. 32.
32. Testimony by John J. Maresca, Vice President, International Relations, UNOCAL Corporation to House Committee on International Relations [Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific), February 12, 1998, p. 5.
33. In 1996, Zalmay Khalilzad (later Ambassador to post-Taliban Afghanistan) wrote that although the Taliban posed a threat, there are some "common interests between the United States and the Taliban." See "Afghanistan: Time to Reengage," The Washington Post, October 7, 1996.
34. In 2000, he accused the Clinton Administration of "underestimating the threat posed to regional stability and to U.S. interests" by the Taliban. See Z. Khalilzad and D. Byman, "Afghanistan: The Consolidation of a Rogue State," The Washington Quarterly (Winter 2000), p. 66.
35. Richard MacKenize, "The United States and the Taliban," Fundamentalism Reborn, William Maley, ed. (New York: New York University Press, 2001), pp. 35 and 91.
36. Shahid M. Amin, Pakistan's Foreign Policy: A Reappraisal (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 114.
37. Hamshahri, June 18, 1997; 28 Khordad 1376.
38. Human Rights Watch: The Massacre in Mazari Sharif, Vol. 10, No. 7, (c) November 1998, p. 2.
39. Hamshahri, August 17, 1998, 26 Mordad 1377.
40. Hamshahri, September 15, 1998, 24 Shahrivar 1377.
41. The author's interview with an Iranian university professor, Tehran, March 2001.
42. Gholamreza Amirkhani, "Afghanistan's Lost Splendor," American Libraries, December 2001, p. 19.
43. Director of Iran's National Library, AmirKahni claims that the Taliban destroyed another library with 55,000 volumes at Pol-e Khomri. See also, Vahid Mojdeh, Afghanistan Va Panj Sal-e Solte-ye Taliban [Afghanistan: Five Years of Dominance by the Taliban] (Tehran, Nashrani, 2002);
44. and Abdullah Rafiee, Kabul Ta Baghdad [From Kabul to Baghdad] (Tehran: The Press of Iran's Armed Forces, 2003). Rafiee offers a military and strategic analysis of the recent events in Iran and Afghanistan.
45. For details, see www.hazara.net/taliban/fitwa/fitwa.html. The site provides information on the recently-discovered mass graves of the victims of the Taliban.
46. Human Rights Watch: Crisis of Impunity; The role of Pakistan, Russia and Iran in Funding the Civil War, Vol. 13, No. 3, July 2001, pp. 39-40.
47. Human Rights Watch: Crisis of Impunity, p. 35.
48. Thomas H. Johnson, "Ismail Khan, Heart and Iranian Influence," Strategic Insights, Vol. III, Issue 7, July 2004, p. 3.
49. For details, see Mohsen Aminzadeh, Diplomasee-ye Iran az dourey-e Khatami to Ahmadinejad [Iranian Diplomacy from Khatami to Ahmadinjead]. Sharagonline.ir/spe/spe/archives/2005_327_19_23_28Ρint.php. Sharag newspaper, a reform-oriented newspaper, conducted an in-depth interview with Mr. Aminzadeh, a top official of the Iranian Foreign Ministry under Khatami.
50. See Diplomasee-ye Iran, p. 5.
51. See Diplomasee-ye Iran, p. 5.
52. See James Risen, State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration (New York: Free Press, 2006) p. 215. Risen's claim has not been corroborated by Iran, nor does he identify his source.
53. For the Bonn Agreement, see Report for Congress: Afghanistan: Challenges and Options for Reconstructing a Stable and Moderate State (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2002), Appendix 1.
54. Kaveh Afrasiabi and Abbas Maleki, "Iran's Foreign Policy After 11 September," The Brown Journal of World Affairs, Volume IX, Issue 2 (Winter/Spring 2003), p. 259;
55. see also Zarif's interview with Time, January 25, 2002.
56. www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/peace/paship.html.
57. Hamshahri, July 20, 2002, 29 Tir, 1381.
58. Risen, State of War, p. 215.
59. George J. Tenet, "Worldwide Threat," Testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, March 19, 2002, p. 6.
60. See: http://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/speeches/2002/ senate_select_hearing_03192002.html.
61. Zalmay Khalilzad, "Speech to the American-Iranian Council," March 13, 2002.
62. Romesh Ratnesar, "Tehran's Game," Time, February 4, 2002, p. 42.
63. "Karzai, Khatami Press Conference," BBC Monitoring, South Asia, Radio Afghanistan (Kabul), August 13, 2002.
64. Hamshahri, February 27, 2002, 8 Esfend 1383.
65. BBC Persian, February 19, 2006. www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2006/02/ printable/060219_mv-afghans-iran.shtml.
66. Foreign Minister Mattaki is quoted as saying that the Iranian Embassy in Afghanistan is issuing up to 2,000 visas per day. "Afghanistan, Iran Sign Consular Cooperation Agreement," BBC Worldwide Monitoring, South Asia, December 26, 2005.
67. Thomas H. Johnson, "The Prospects for Post-Conflict Afghanistan: A Call of the Sirens to the Country's Troubled Past," Strategic Insights, Volume V, Issue 2 (February 2006), p. 2.
68. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Summary Findings of Opium Trends in Afghanistan, 2005, September 12, 2005, p. 1.
69. See: www.unodc.org/pdf/afg/ 2005SummaryFindingsOfOpiumTrendsAfghanistan.pdf.
70. "Rafsanjani Condemns Israeli Attacks Against Palestinian Refugee Camps," BBC Monitoring, South Asia from Voice of Islamic Republic of Iran, March 8, 2002.
71. Johnson, The Prospects, p. 17.
72. See the Hizb-e Wahdat, http://geocities.com/wahdat_magazine/ governmental.html.
73. See also Johnson, The Prospects, p. 5.
74. Johnson, The Prospects, pp. 5, 8 and 17;
75. Gulshan Dietl, "War, Peace and the Warlords: The Case of Ismail Khan of Herat in Afghanistan," Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations, Vol. 3, Nos. 2 & 3 (Fall 2004), pp. 41-66.
76. Dietl, "War, Peace and the Warlords," p. 58.
77. Hamshahri, February 27, 2002, 8 Esfend 1383.
78. See Bill Samii, "Tehran Talks Out of Both Sides of Mouth on Afghan Election," RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 8, No. 197, October 18, 2004.
79. Many others questioned the legitimacy and fairness of the elections. See, for example, M. Nazif Shahrani, "Afghanistan's Presidential Elections: Spreading Democracy or a Sham?' Middle East Report Online, October 8, 2004.
80. For the problems of building democracy in Afghanistan, see Barnett R. Rubin, "(Re)Building Afghanistan: The Folly of Stateless Democracy," Current History, 103 (April 2004), pp. 165-170
81. "We Should Not Fall Victim to Behind-the-Scenes Politicking," BBC Monitoring, South Asia, Anis, May 19, 2005.
82. BBC Persian, January 31, 2006.
83. See: www.bbc.co.uk/persian/afghanistan/story/2006/01/printable/ 060131_he_afghanaids_html.
84. "Iran Exports $10m to Afghanistan," BBC, Monitoring International Reports fom IRNA, October 1, 2002.
85. Global News Wire, Asia Intelligence Wire, March 25, 2005, p. 1.
86. "Iran to Build Bridge to Afghanistan," BBC, Monitoring International Reports from IRNA, January 13, 2002.
87. BBC Persian, February 2, 2006. www.bbc.co.uk/persian/story/2006/02/ printable/060202_v_afghan_london.html.
88. Khaleej Times, September 24, 2002.
89. BBC, January 13, 2002. www.bbc.co.uk/persian/afghanistan/story/2005/07/ printable/050712_s_industrial_herat.
90. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Amir Kabir Ya Ghahraman-e Mobareze Ba Astemar [Amir Kabir or the Hero of the Struggle Against Colonialism] (Tehran: Farahnai Press, 1346), p. 377.
91. Hurewitz, J.C., ed. The Middle East and North Africa in World Politics: European Expansion, 1535-1914, Vol. 1 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975), pp. 341-343.
92. BBC Persian, July 12, 2005. www.bbc.co.uk/persian/afghanistan/story/2005/ 07/printable/050712_s-industrialnl.html.
93. Dietl, "War, Peace and the Warlords," p. 52.
94. Charles Clover, The New York Times, October 9, 2002.
95. Charles Clover, The New York Times, October 9, 2002.
96. David Zucchino, The Los Angeles Times, March 26, 2002.
97. David Zucchino, The Los Angeles Times, March 26, 2002.
98. David Zucchino, The Los Angeles Times, March 26, 2002.
99. Amy Waldman, The New York Times, April 3, 2002.
100. Dietl, "War, Peace and the Warlords," p. 57.
101. See Amin Tarzi, "Is Herrat a Prelude to the End of Afghan Warlordism?" September 26, 2004, www.eurasianet.org.departments/ insight/articles/pp092604_pr.shtml.
102. Mohsen M. Milani, "Iran, the Status Quo Power," Current History, Vol. 104, No. 678 (January 2005), pp. 30-36.
103. "Afghanistan, Iran," BBC Worldwide Monitoring, South Asia, December 26, 2005.
104. BBC Persian, January 31, 2006.
105. See: www.bbc.co.uk/persian/afghanistan/stroy/2006/01/printable/ 060131_he-afghanids.shtml.
106. Barnett R. Rubin, The Fragmentation of Afghanistan (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002, Second edition), p. 252.