"Indeed, Iran should be on notice efforts to try to remake Iraq in Iran's image will be aggressively put down," Rumsfeld warned

WASHINGTON, May 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The U.S. turned up more heat on Iran Tuesday, May 27, with serious warnings over Iran’s alleged harboring of fugitive Al-Qaeda leaders, intervention in Iraq and quest for nuclear arms.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld threatened that any effort to rebuild Iraq on Iran's Islamic model "will be aggressively put down," while the White House dismissed as "insufficient" Tehran’s cooperation in cracking down on al-Qaeda.

But U.S. officials said contacts with the Islamic republic, which has strongly denied sheltering al-Qaeda, would be pursued, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Rumsfeld said interference in Iraq by its neighbors or their proxies will not be permitted.

"Indeed, Iran should be on notice efforts to try to remake Iraq in Iran's image will be aggressively put down," he said in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer claimed that steps Iran had taken regarding the capture of al-Qaeda suspects were "insufficient", despite the country's arrest of several suspected members on Monday, May 26.

He would not say specifically that direct talks between U.S. and Iranian officials, held recently in Geneva, had been suspended, but noted that U.S. officials had not attended a meeting scheduled for last week.

Reports have said the Bush administration cut off secret talks with Iran because of intelligence information pointing to the presence of senior al-Qaeda members in the country.

"We will not miss important opportunities to state our case to Iranian authorities through whatever channels are appropriate because it represents important principles about not harboring terrorists, about not developing nuclear weapons," said Fleischer.

"These are important positions and we will not be shy about expressing them," he added, confirming that plans for a high-level, interagency White House meeting to discuss policy on Iran had been postponed from Tuesday.

The New York Times reported Monday, that Washington asked Iran to hand over al-Qaeda members operating in its territory, following the May 12 bombings in Saudi Arabia that left 34 dead.

Iran had repudiated claims of harboring key members of Al-Qaeda, with Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi asserting that "Al-Qaeda members have been arrested in Iran, but the persons imprisoned are not important leaders."

A U.S. official said he understood the meeting might now take place on Thursday, May 29, and include Secretary of State Colin Powell, Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

No Change

Powell told reporters, however, that he knew of no change to the administration's approach to Iran.

"Our policies with respect to Iran have not changed," Powell said, while reaffirming the administration's concerns.

"We do not approve of their support of terrorist activity," Powell said.

"We have made it clear over the years that we disapprove of their efforts to develop a nuclear capability.

"Our policies are well known and I am not aware of any changes in policy of the kind that have been speculated about," Powell said of the media reports.

Iran Warns

"We hope logic and reason will prevail in the Americans' debates and that they will avoid taking an interventionist stance," Assefi said

Iran warned Washington on Tuesday to stay out of its internal affairs, amid U.S. newspaper reports the White House was contemplating stirring up a popular revolt against the Islamic republic.

"We hope logic and reason will prevail in the Americans' debates and that they will avoid taking an interventionist stance," Assefi told AFP.

His words coincided with the reported talks in the White House on whether to foment a rebellion against Iran's regime.

"We do not know to what degree this information is true. But we have always told the Americans to avoid meddling in our internal affairs."

Pentagon officials were advocating a popular uprising to topple Iran's government, and the State Department could accept the approach if Iran did not take steps to crack down on al-Qaeda by Tuesday, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.

Iran and the United States broke off relations after Tehran's 1979 Islamic revolution, and Bush last year famously labeled the country as part of an "axis of evil" along with Iraq and North Korea.

U.S. officials have also been worried about Iran's nuclear program.

Russia reiterated Tuesday its determination to complete the construction of Iran's first nuclear power plant despite mounting American pressures to scrap the project.

Russia "is insisting on the construction of the Bushehr plant, and is confident that the launch of its first bloc will be completed on time," said Russian Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev.