Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in Afghanistan yesterday, leading a delegation of high-ranking Iranians and meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The visit to Kabul was Ahmadinejad’s first to the country and is causing consternation in Washington.

The meeting was characterized by the Guardian as an audacious signal of Ahmadinejad’s determination to counter U.S. global power and an openly defiant response to Washington’s desires.

“The visit … was tailor-made to provoke alarm within the Bush administration, which accused Tehran of destabilizing its efforts while claiming that the Taliban is being armed with Iranian weapons,” the report said. In spite of evidence to the contrary, Iran denies such a role.

The visit is even more of a diplomatic affront toward Washington since it comes just one week after Karzai’s visit to the White House. There, President Bush said at a press conference, “I would be very cautious about whether or not the Iranian influence in Afghanistan is a positive force.”

Karzai, who is an important U.S. ally in the war on terrorism, responded that the president was wrong, describing Tehran as “a helper and a solution.”

Ahmadinejad described the visit as a way for Tehran to help establish security in and independence for Afghanistan, implying that Iran would perform what U.S. and coalition initiatives have yet to accomplish.

Iran has poured approximately $250 million into development projects in Afghanistan. It claims that one of its main interests there is to stem production of opiates and their exportation into Iran. Iran has one of the world’s highest drug-addiction rates.

Washington has absorbed a number of punches in its attempts to limit Iranian influence. It has been forced to open talks with the country, which is technically considered a rogue nation and a member of the “axis of evil” and is known to be the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism. In addition, U.S.-backed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has just visited Tehran, and attempts to stop Iran’s nuclear program or bring effective United Nations sanctions against the country have also failed.

Watch for Iran’s regional and global influence to develop quite divorced from the wishes of Washington. For more on this subject, read “Iran Is King.”