US military strikes unacceptable: Iran

["Ulhas Joglekar" <uvj@xxxxxxxx>]

The Times of India

MONDAY, OCTOBER 08, 2001

US military strikes unacceptable: Iran

TEHRAN: Iran condemned the US-led military strikes against neighbouring
Afghanistan on Sunday as "unacceptable" despite its animosity to the
Taliban, and warned against violation of its territory during the
operations.

"These attacks which have been launched regardless of the world public
opinion, especially the Muslim nations, and which will damage the innocent
and oppressed Afghans, are unacceptable," said foreign ministry spokesman,
Hamid-Reza Asefi.

Asefi was also quoted by the state IRNA news agency as warning Washington
against "any action which ... may encroach on (Iran's) territorial
integrity."

"America must respect the sea and air territorial integrity of ... Iran and
must refrain from any activity which could violate that," he said.

Shiite Iran is extremely hostile to Afghanistan's ruling extremist Sunni
Taliban militia, which the United States accuses of sheltering Osama bin
Laden, the prime suspect in the September 11 terror attacks in New York and
Washington.

However, Iran has ruled out joining hands with Washington, still referred to
here as the "Great Satan," in strikes against a fellow Muslim country.

Instead, Tehran demanded the international campaign against terror be led by
the United Nations, and pleaded its case that military strikes would only
compound the problem of its more than 1.5 million Afghan refugees.

Iran closed its border with Afghanistan following the anti-US terror
attacks, and has built camps on the other side of the frontier to cope with
an anticipated flood of new refugees.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has estimated that between
300,000 and 400,000 Afghans may now flee to Iran.

IRNA later on Sunday said 200 medical centres in eastern Sistan Baluchistan
province were "ready" to help victims of the US and British strikes.

Tehran, which shares a 900-kilometer (540-mile) border with Afghanistan, is
also a strong supporter of anti-Taliban rebel groups, as well as the
Northern Alliance of ousted Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani.

Rabbani was deposed by the Taliban in 1996 but is still recognised as
Afghanistan's president by the United Nations and most states. His forces in
the Northern Alliance still hold the country's northeast.

The ambassador of the Rabbani government in Tehran, Mohammad Kheirkhah, told
AFP on Sunday that the US military attacks could be a "great help" for the
Afghan people if they "destroys the terrorist centres."

"If they are only military operations against terrorism, we agree. But if
the Americans attack civilians, that would create a new serious problem,
that could turn out to be very bad," he said.

State-run Iranian television gave special coverage to the US-led air and
missile attacks against Afghanistan, which it dubbed "Blind Attack."

Despite the immediate -- but low-level -- condemnation of the attacks,
diplomats have speculated the Afghanistan crisis could eventually spur a
greater rapprochement between Tehran and the United States.

They both share a place in the so-called "six plus two" grouping of the
country's six neighbours, plus the United States and Russia, which have
discussed how to deal with the extremist regime in Kabul.

In September of last year, Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi and then-US
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright sat at the same table at a meeting in
New York to discuss the Taliban under the "six plus two" formula.

It marked the first time that Iran and the United States did so since they
broke ties following the 1979 Islamic revolution.


( AFP )

Copyright © 2001 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.


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