Iran, Oman, Algeria Object to U.S. Military Action Against Iraq
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Khatami
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TEHRAN,
August 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - President Mohammad
Khatami warned Sunday, August 4, against foreign interference in
Iraq’s internal affairs amid U.S. intentions of governmental change
in Iran’s immediate neighbor.
“Any
interference in the internal affairs of Iraq will exacerbate the
situation of this country as well as the region,” the Iranian
president said in a meeting with Omani Minister of State for Foreign
Affairs Youssef bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Iranian daily newspaper,
Tehran Times, reported.
“The
territorial integrity and fate of the Iraqi people who have to pay for
(external) pressures and interference are important to all regional
countries,” Khatami said, adding that “Baghdad must accept
international rules and remove the ground for insecurity and
intervention of alien forces.”
Washington
has raised the situation by speculations that it may attack Baghdad to
oust President Saddam Hussein whose country has been under a U.S.-led
economic boycott for 12 years.
The
Iranian president criticized U.S. unilateral support for the
heavy-handed policies of the Israeli regime and called on the Islamic
states to strengthen unity.
“The
Islamic countries should promote cooperation and unity under the
current situation in order the restore the rights of the oppressed
Palestinian people and establish security and defend the dignity of
Islam,” he added.
Bin
Alawi arrived in Iran Sunday morning on the heels of the visit by
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal who paid a one-day visit to the
Islamic Republic on Saturday.
The
Omani minister added his voice to earlier statements by Tehran and
Riyadh expressing opposition to any military action against Iraq.
Meanwhile,
in a meeting with Algerian Ambassador to Iran Abdelqader Hajar,
Rowhani, the Secretary of Supreme National Security Council (SNSC),
Hassan Rowhani, said on Sunday that Iran considers any attack on
neighboring states including Iraq as detrimental to regional security,
Tehran Times reported.
He
added that attacking a country without a go-ahead from the U.N.
Security Council is a blatant aggression against that country.
He
said that the United States has embarked on planning an attack on Iraq
and despite the Iraqi offer to allow U.N. arms inspectors to return,
the U.S. is continuing its provocation against Iraq.
Rowhani
said that imposing war on Iraq will bring even more economic hardships
for the Iraqi people as well as Iraq’s neighbors.
He
said that Israel was pressing on with its genocide and terrorist
practices against the Palestinian people, and called for consultations
among Islamic nations to stop the genocide against Palestinian people.
He
said that Islamic nations would have taken measures available to deal
with Israel’s aggressions, but the lack consensus among them has
been the stumbling block in this respect.
Rowhani
said that Israel will not limit itself to destroying the Palestinian
nation, but will follow the same objective against all regional
states, so that the nations in the region have no alternative but to
resist it.
The
SNSC secretary said that the U.S. has embarked on a propaganda
campaign against Islam since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the
United States, while U.S.-backed Israel has intensified its terrorist
operations against Palestinians.
He
said that the U.S. is seeking to exert influence over the Muslim
world’s vital and geopolitical centers especially in the Middle
East, the Persian Gulf and the Horn of Africa, adding that the Muslim
nations are in pressing need of solidarity more than ever before.
Hajar
said that any action against Iraq should take place within the
framework of the U.N. adding that Algeria holds the same view with the
Islamic Republic of Iran on any military action on Iraq.
He
said that the U.S. doesn’t heed international norms and violates the
national sovereignty of other nations.
The
Algerian ambassador said that Algeria supports the Palestinian people
and their resistance to the Zionist regime’s occupation force.
Meanwhile,
Iran denied Monday, August 5, an accusation by a top U.S. official
that it was harboring members of the Al-Qaeda network and accused the
United States of “telling lies to achieve its illegitimate
objectives in the region,” Agence France-Press (AFP) reported.
“It
is untrue, and Iran has no affinity with Taliban and Al-Qaeda and Iran
has proven it by words and acts”, foreign ministry spokesman
Hamid-Reza Assefi said.
The
U.S. “intends to achieve its illegitimate objectives in the
region” through this “false and misleading information.”
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