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Iran Lashes Out At U.S., Arab Intellectuals Want Arab-U.S. Ties Reviewed
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Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Karrazi |
TEHRAN, April 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The United States came under fire Sunday from Iran and Arab intellectuals for its blind support of Israel’s “barbaric” attacks against armless Palestinians under occupation.
U.S. policies and its support for Israel plunged the Middle East into the "abyss", Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi charged Sunday, ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's tour of the region, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Due to its unilateral support, the United States has incited Israel to violence and aggression against the Palestinian people, and encouraged it to use all sorts of methods of aggression," he said.
"Washington's ill-fated policies have plunged the region into the abyss, with massacres perpetrated against the innocent and defenseless Palestinian people," he added.
With Israel pursuing its military offensive in the West Bank since March 29, Iran's rival reformist and conservative camps united ranks to express support for the Palestinians and raise the tone of condemnation of the United States.
U.S. President George W. Bush's speech last week on the Middle East conflict "should not be trusted" and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's impending trip "will not change the situation on the ground," Mohammad Sadegh al-Hosseini, a government expert on the region, forecast Sunday.
In the Saudi capital Riyadh, meanwhile, a group of Saudi intellectuals called on the government Sunday to review its ties with the United States in light of Washington's perceived support of Israel's attacks on the Palestinians, reported AFP.
"We appeal to the man of peace Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz to review Saudi-American ties," the group, comprising 21 intellectuals and writers, said in a statement.
"We remind him (Abdullah) of the position of his brother, the late King Faisal who used the weapon of oil as a pressure (tool) against those who respect only the strong," the group added.
Crown Prince Abdullah, on vacation in Morocco, is the de facto ruler of the oil-rich kingdom. Last month, he presented an initiative for peace in the Middle East which Arab leaders endorsed at a summit in Beirut. Israel responded to the Arab peace offer by launching a massive military onslaught and reoccupying most of the Palestinian land.
The group also condemned Arab governments for their "total compliance and surrender to the American government headed by the dictator (President George W.) Bush."
Within the same context, nearly 400 Egyptians, most of them lawyers, staged a demonstration Sunday in support of the Palestinians.
"Down With Israel!," shouted the protestors, comprising men, women and children.
They also raised posters that read, "Tomorrow, the revolution will take place," and "Jerusalem Will Remain Arab," according to an AFP photographer on the scene.
Dozens of Egyptian intellectuals protested Saturday outside Arab League headquarters, where Arab Foreign Ministers held an emergency meeting to support the Palestinians.
The ministers ignored protestors' calls to sever ties with Israel - as Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania insist on maintaining diplomatic ties - but declared support for the Palestinians.
Protests raged across the Arab world since March 29 when Israeli troops stormed the West Bank and penned Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in his headquarters in the city of Ramallah.
Under emergency laws in force since 1981, Egypt has banned demonstrations, though it tolerates them on campus.
In a separate related development, a Bahraini, injured during a demonstration outside the U.S. embassy in Manama, died of his wounds Sunday, the first person killed in the protests against Israel's aggressions.
"Mohammad Jomaa, 24, succumbed to his wounds Sunday morning at Salmaniya hospital" in Manama, where he was admitted after Friday's protest, a family member told AFP.
Bahrain's Information Minister Nabil al-Hamer confirmed Jomaa's "very sad" death, adding that one member of the security forces remained in critical condition after the violence.
"Tear gas was used to disperse a number of infiltrators who attacked the U.S. embassy which unfortunately injured one person taking part in the demonstration and a number of public security men," Hamer said.
Jomaa, from the village of Al-Shakhura, was hit in the head by a tear gas canister during the protest, Hamer told AFP.
But Jomaa's father blamed his son's death on bullets fired by security personnel from the U.S. embassy, and said his family was awaiting the autopsy report.
"Mohammad was hit in the head, the eye and thigh by rubber bullets fired from the US embassy," he told AFP.
"My son did not go into the embassy. He was outside with the protestors. His companions told me he was hit by rubber bullets fired from within the embassy," he said.
The U.S. embassy admitted Saturday that its security personnel fired tear gas at the pro-Palestinian protesters, who hurled Molotov cocktails and stones at the mission.
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