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July 9th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Over the past years, “Iran has invested more than USD 500 million in building roads, railroads, schools and hospitals in Afghanistan. We are hosting more than 3 million Afghan refugees in our country. More than 300,000 Afghan students attend our schools and over 8,000 students attend our universities,” Salehi told Press TV on the sidelines of the Tokyo Conference on Afghanistan on Sunday.
The meeting in the Japanese capital is aimed at securing aid commitments for Afghanistan.
“This conference, which is held in Tokyo, Japan, is aimed at helping Afghanistan to raise its standards of living, to prepare itself after the 2014 when foreign troops leave Afghanistan, to stand on its feet, to take care of its security and stability with the assistance of the international community, and to make all it can for the prosperity of its people,” Salehi pointed out.
Ministers from Iran, Pakistan, and India, as well as Britain, France, and Australia, had attended the one-day conference, alongside envoys from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, China, South Korea, and several other countries.
Donor countries at the major conference for Afghanistan pledged a total of more than $16 billion in financial assistance to the war-battered country for the next five years.
The aid is direly needed by Afghans to build their country. But the donors are also asking for firm assurances from Afghan authorities that the money will be spent to improve governance and combat corruption.
The US-led war in Afghanistan began in 2001. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise across Afghanistan, despite the presence of hundreds of thousands of foreign troops.
On the financial front, the Afghan economy is very weak and the country cannot survive without foreign aid.
According to the World Bank, spending on defense and development by donors accounted for more than 95 percent of the country’s GDP in the years 2010 and 2011.
MP/GHN/HJL
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