afghanistanbe persuaded to make up the shortfall. Yet despite much costly travel, the
financial returns were minimal and even the Gulf States only pledged a few
hundred million dollars. In a desperate attempt to persuade Saudi Arabia
to fund the Plan, Jalallar, the Finance Minister, tactlessly told the Saudi
ambassador, ‘for you 1.5 billion dollars is nothing... you should help a
[Muslim] brother’, to which the envoy laughingly replied: ‘God will give
you wealth as well. But we will help you in other ways.’ 19
In April 1975 Da’ud travelled to Tehran and during his Republic
Day speech he publicly announced the Seven Year Plan. A few days
later the Kabul Times announced that the Shah of Iran had agreed to
extend Afghanistan a $710 million line of credit, most of which would be
devoted to the construction of a rail link between Kabul and Iran and a
joint irrigation project on the disputed waters of the Helmand. Following
Afghanistan’s Planning Minister’s visit to Iran in November of the same
year, a further assistance package was agreed. The Iranian loan marked a
shift in Afghanistan’s regional relations and was a significant climbdown
for President Da’ud, who had vociferously opposed attempts by previous
governments to seek Iranian assistance or to settle the dispute over riparian
rights. However, while President Da’ud’s actions won the approval of State
Department officials, 20 the Iranian credit deal never got off the ground
due to the oil embargo of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries, or opec, and Iran’s subsequent decision to double its own
internal expenditure.
This was not the only concession President Da’ud made. The tours of
Arab and European capitals obliged Da’ud and Na‘im to face the unpleas-
ant fact that no country supported their stance on Pushtunistan. Instead,
Afghan ministers were again and again urged to negotiate with Pakistan
so that Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan could present a united front against
the ussr. In the end, Da’ud’s need of hard cash to keep the country and his
government solvent and to pay for his Seven Year Plan took priority over
his pursuit of Pushtunistan.
One of the conditions imposed by Iran on its credit agreement was
that the Afghan government tone down its rhetoric about Pushtunistan
and agree to unconditional negotiations with Pakistan to settle the long-
standing dispute, and from the end of 1975 Afghanistan’s state-controlled
media began to moderate its stance on the issue. In April of the following
year, when the Pakistan Red Crescent provided substantial humanitarian
aid to victims of flooding and an earthquake that left more than 100,000
people homeless, the Afghan government publicly thanked Pakistan for
helping fellow Muslims. As a mark of respect for the dead, Bhutto also