Kabul’s riot and Iran

Mehran Riazaty: Iran Analyst

On May 29, 2006- Many news agencies around the world reported that a deadly traffic accident Monday involving U.S. troops sparked the worst rioting in the Afghan capital since the fall of the Taliban government, with hundreds of protesters looting shops and shouting "Death to America!" At least eight people were killed and 107 injured, an official said.

An interesting point is that this deadly traffic accident involving US troops happened in Kabul right after Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai was heading back home from visiting Iran. READ MORE

Yesterday, Fars news agency reported that the Afghan people in the street of Kabul were chanting “Death to America”, “Death to Karzai.”

The number of news agencies around the world reported that Karzai went to Iran to mediate between Iran and the US on Iran’s nuclear activities. On Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi in response to a question on whether Kabul is mediating between Iran and the US in the ongoing nuclear standoff between Iran and the West said Afghan officials, including its foreign minister, have already denied reports in this connection. "We also say that these reports are baseless and the issue (mediation) is not in the agenda of Mr Karzai's visit," the spokesman stressed.

Analyst Comment: It is possible that in a meeting with the Iranian officials in Tehran Karzai took the US side on Iran’s nuclear activities and that made the Iranian authorities respond. Then the Iranian authorities through their agents in Afghanistan (Corps of Mohammad) sparked the Kabul’s riots to show off their power to the US and Karzai.

Mehran Riazaty: a former Iran analyst for the Central Command of the Coalition Forces in Baghdad.