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Iran
Terms U.S. Allegations "Hallucinations", Warns Against
Attack
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| “Washington
should know that Iran is not the place for this sort of
aventurism,” said Rafsanjani. |
TEHRAN,
Feb. 4 (News Agencies) - Iran Monday described as
“hallucinations” U.S. allegations it was helping Taliban and
Al-Qaeda fighters, and announced it was “prepared to defend Iran's
territorial integrity and independence.”
In the latest war of words between the two countries, Iran’s
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamidreza Asefi delivered a speech
Monday, January 4, in which he accused the United States of lacking
evidence in its allegations.
"The recent accusations against Iran are not acceptable at all
and are based on hallucinations, not evidence," Asefi told a
news conference.
"U.S. officials should base their comments on evidence;
otherwise they will lose the trust and respect of their public
opinion," he added.
Asefi described any attack on Iran as an "irreparable
mistake", while navy chief Admiral Abbas Mohtaj said his
aircraft, ships and submarines "are prepared to defend Iran's
territorial integrity and independence," Agence France Presse
(AFP) reported.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld accused Iran Sunday, Feb
3, of letting some Taliban and Al-Qaeda members escape from
Afghanistan.
"There isn't any doubt in my mind that the porous border
between Iran and Afghanistan has been used for Al-Qaeda and Taliban
to move into Iran and find refuge,'' he claimed.
Rumsfeld also said the United States “has any number of reports''
that Iran has been contributing to instability inside Afghanistan by
arming various Afghan factions.
President George W. Bush last week called Iran, Iraq and North Korea
an “axis of evil'' that might give terrorist groups chemical,
biological or nuclear weapons.
Political analysts, meanwhile, said any U.S. attack on Iran, which
enjoys a high profile regionally and internationally, would have
drastic political, strategic and economic consequences.
"Unlike Iraq and North Korea, Iran is a respected country,
whose weight is increasing in international political and economic
institutions," political analyst Iraj Rashti said.
Iran is highly active in the United Nations, whose Secretary General
Kofi Annan has just visited Tehran, and was one of the main
opponents of the Taliban regime, accusing it of encouraging drug
smuggling and shaming Islam.
It also has huge oil resources, second after Saudi Arabia in the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and is the
world's second largest gas reserves after Russia.
"Many Western countries have vital interests in Iran's
development and stability," Rashti added.
Former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani warned Monday,
Februaru 4, that a U.S. attack on Iran would spark a serious world
energy crisis, sending the price of a barrel of oil over 50 dollars.
Quoted by Iranian state television, Rafsanjani warned that
"because of the geopolitical situation of our country,
Washington should know that Iran is not the place for this sort of
aventurism.” 
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