Hamid's all mixed up, I guess

Hamid Karzai went way off message, telling Wolf Blitzer on CNN:

"Iran has been a supporter of Afghanistan in the peace process that we have and the fight against terror and the fight against narcotics in Afghanistan. ... We have had very very good, very very close relations. ... Iran has been a helper and a solution."

The current occupant of the White House was not particularly happy about that. As Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in today's NYT:

Mr. Karzai characterized Iran as “a helper” in a CNN interview broadcast Sunday. But when the two men greeted reporters here on Monday, Mr. Bush pointedly disagreed, saying, “I would be very cautious about whether the Iranian influence in Afghanistan is a positive force.”

Iran has sent workers to Afghanistan to provide aid to villages, but American officials contend that Tehran is also funneling weapons into the country. Mr. Bush has long viewed Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism, and is deeply suspicious of its nuclear ambitions, a view he reiterated Monday even as he said he was “willing to listen” to Mr. Karzai’s position.

“The president knows best about what’s taking place in his country, and of course, I’m willing to listen,” Mr. Bush said. “But from my perspective, the burden of proof is on the Iranian government to show us that they’re a positive force.”

And Peter Baker writes in the WaPo:

President Bush warned Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday to be more suspicious of neighboring Iran, calling the Islamic republic a "destabilizing force" that should be isolated until it drops any nuclear aspirations and proves it can be a positive influence.

Capping a two-day visit at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Bush took issue with Karzai's view that Iran "has been a helper" in Afghanistan, a rare point of divergence in a meeting intended to show solidarity in the battle with the Taliban and al-Qaeda. The Bush administration has accused Iran of arming the Taliban, reports Karzai largely brushed aside before arriving.

"They're not a force for good, as far as we can see," Bush said of Iran, with Karzai at his side. "They're a destabilizing influence wherever they are. Now, the president will have to talk to you about Afghanistan. But I would be very cautious about whether or not the Iranian influence there in Afghanistan is a positive force. And therefore, it's going to be up to them to prove to us and prove to the government that they are."

By the by, as Olivier Knox of AFP notes (and, oddly, apparently only he - but you know what the F stands for, right? So it figures...), there's a certain, um, inaccuracy to at least some of this rhetoric:

US President George W. Bush charged Monday that Iran has openly declared that it seeks nuclear weapons -- an inaccurate accusation at a time of sharp tensions between Washington and Tehran.

"It's up to Iran to prove to the world that they're a stabilizing force as opposed to a destabilizing force. After all, this is a government that has proclaimed its desire to build a nuclear weapon," he said during a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

But Iran has repeatedly said that its nuclear program, which is widely believed in the West to be cover for an effort to develop atomic weapons, is for civilian purposes.

Asked to provide examples of Tehran openly declaring that it seeks atomic weapons, White House officials contacted by AFP said that Bush was referring to Iran's defiance of international calls to freeze sensitive nuclear work.

You know, it sort of puts me in mind of how they kept saying Hussein was in defiance of UNR1441 - you remember, the one that said he had to give up all his WMD? But back to Karzai.

All this, of course, when Karzai is going against Bush on the topic of their other neighbor, Pakistan. As Baker says:

Karzai and his government have been highly critical of Pakistan for harboring Taliban and al-Qaeda guerrillas in rugged, largely ungoverned tribal territory along the border. Bush has been more understanding of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's dicey political position, calling him a valuable ally in the struggle with terrorists.

Ah, well. I suppose Karzai's just comparing those who come in and help and those who come in and shoot people. He's just not looking at the "big picture" at all.