TEHRAN, 6 February — Iran took its objections to the United States’ war on terror to the United Nations yesterday after President George W. Bush proposed the largest military buildup since the Cold War. Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said US "militarism, unilateralism and the logic of might makes right" were posing a "grave threat to global peace and security" in a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Still stinging from Bush’s inclusion of Iran in his "axis of evil" remarks last week, Tehran stepped up its war of words with Washington amid deep concern about the Bush administration’s plans to extend the war on terror beyond Afghanistan. Kharrazi accused the US president of "diversionary sensationalism" and twisting the definition of terrorism while ignoring the root causes of the problem.
Kharrazi also said Iran will deport to their own countries any members of the Al-Qaeda terror network it finds within its borders, adding that it should be helped rather than accused by the United States. "As we did five years ago we continue to arrest people who are illegally crossing our border with Afghanistan," Kharrazi told a joint press conference with his South African counterpart Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.
"If there are some among them who are Taleban or Al-Qaeda they are treated according to the law and would be deported to their country, this is our decision", he said. "The Islamic Republic of Iran should be helped in its efforts and activities instead of being accused," he added, saying that if the United States had information about wanted suspects it should provide it.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said at the weekend he had no doubt that Iran had allowed members of Al-Qaeda and its allies, the ousted Taleban regime, to cross the border from Afghanistan. But Kharrazi said yesterday, "Our borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan are very long and it is very difficult to control them... We do whatever we can to control the border but it’s impossible to control it completely."
In his letter to the UN chief, Kharrazi refuted the US allegations point by point and accused Israel of "hijacking the anti-terrorism effort and changing it to unconditional US support for occupation, brutal suppression and state terrorism" against the Palestinians. The diplomatic offensive followed a warning by Kharrazi’s spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi on Monday that any US attack on Iran would be "a huge, irreparable mistake."
Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani for his part warned the United States yesterday not to mistake Iran for Afghanistan or Iraq because Washington would pay a high price for any attack. "We are neither Afghanistan nor Iraq, and Iran will not hesitate to defend its values and principles. Iran will not retreat an inch," he said.
