TEHRAN, 17 May 2003 — Iran rejects charges by the US defense secretary and White House national security adviser that Tehran backs terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and is developing nuclear weapons, the official IRNA news agency said yesterday. “These sorts of statements are strange political literature and are not fit to be uttered by people who claim to be politicians,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi was quoted as saying. “Repeating these accusations does not validate the unfounded claims”.
On Wednesday, White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said: “Iran continues to engage in a behavior that is deeply troubling and antithetical to American interests. Iran’s (weapons of mass destruction) program, its nuclear program - the US has raised alarm over these programs over a long period of time.”
US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday: “There are still countries harboring terrorists. I mean, we know there are senior Al-Qaeda in Iran.” Rumsfeld, who had previously accused Iran of giving refuge to Al-Qaeda members fleeing Afghanistan, provided no details on which of the group’s leaders are believed to be in Iran.
Iran also strongly denied yesterday allegations by an exile opposition group that it had biological weapons. A senior government official said the charge made by the National Council of Resistance of Iran that Tehran had biological weapons armed with anthrax, smallpox and typhoid was false. “I strongly deny that we have biological weapons because we do not need any banned weapons,” the official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on Thursday the administration had “long made clear” its deep concern over Iran’s biological weapons programs. The opposition group provided a list of names and places at a Washington news conference where they claimed biological weapons were being produced.
