TEHRAN, 1 November 2007 — Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday dismissed as a “sheer lie” US charges that the Islamic republic was supplying arms and training to insurgents killing American troops in Iraq. “The idiotic policies of the United States in Iraq have led to the killing of its troops,” state television quoted the all-powerful leader as saying.
“The US administration is faced with criticism from its own people over its wrong policies. It wrongly accuses Iran as it has no answers,” he told thousands of student members of the hard-line Basij militia in Tehran. The United States accuses Iran of seeking to sabotage security in Iraq by supplying weapons, including rockets, armor-piercing explosives and mines that have killed American soldiers.
Earlier this month, Washington adopted sanctions against Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards corps and its elite Al-Qods force, which US commanders accuse of arming and training Shiite militias that have attacked US troops in Iraq. Iran has always denied the charges and blames the US-led forces for the instability and violence in its western neighbor.
It also wants the release of six Iranian officials detained by US forces in Iraq, who Washington accuses of being members of the Al-Qods force on a covert mission to stir trouble in Iraq.
Iran warned the United States yesterday it would find itself in a “quagmire deeper than Iraq” if it attacked the Islamic state, and Russia stepped up efforts for a diplomatic solution to Tehran’s nuclear row with the West. The warning by the Revolutionary Guards added to angry rhetoric between the two old foes that has prompted speculation of possible US military action.
US President George W. Bush has suggested a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to World War III. Washington insists it wants a diplomatic solution but a US official said yesterday more “tough-minded diplomacy” was needed to make this route work. “If the enemies show inexperience and want to invade Islamic Iran, they will receive a strong slap from Iran,” Jafari said in comments carried by the semi-official Fars News Agency.
“The enemy knows that if it attacks Iran it, will be trapped in a quagmire deeper than Iraq and Afghanistan, and they will have to withdraw with defeat,” he told a parade in north-central Iran, without mentioning the United States by name.
The five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany are expected to meet in London tomorrow to discuss a possible third round of UN sanctions, US undersecretary of state for political affairs Nicholas Burns said.
Tensions over Iran’s nuclear program are one of the factors that have pushed oil prices to record highs of over $90 a barrel in recent days., a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council, says dialogue rather than punishment or talk of military action offers the best way to ease tension. It says the IAEA process should be given time to run its course.
Speaking after talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday evening, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, according to a transcript from his ministry: “We encouraged the Iranian leadership to undertake further — and preferably more active — work with the IAEA to clear up those questions which have been raised by the agency with regard to the Iranian nuclear program’s past.”
