TEHRAN, 14 July 2005 — Iran hit back at US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday over his allegation that the Islamic republic could have been behind a suicide attack at a shopping mall in Israel. “The declaration by Rumsfeld is aimed at trying to cover up the failure of the United States in the region,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said in a statement.
According to Asefi, at fault were “clumsy and ill-thought out actions by the United States in its fight against terrorism,” which had only resulted in “attacks and the deaths of innocent people”.
“America’s leaders see the world through Israeli eyes and cannot correctly analyze the global situation. You have to look for the center of terrorism at the heart of the Zionist regime,” the statement said.
On Tuesday, top US officials, including Rumsfeld, pointed fingers at both Syria and Iran as they denounced the deadly bombing in Netanya — the first such attack inside the Jewish state in four and a half months. “I wouldn’t want to suggest that I know about the attack today, but clearly that’s been one of the stated and continuous purposes of Iran, to harm Israel,” said Rumsfeld.
Meanwhile, Iran could change its nuclear policy, particularly its commitment to a freeze of ultra-sensitive uranium enrichment activities, top negotiator Hassan Rohani was quoted as saying yesterday.
“I think that nobody is hostile to the continuation of negotiations but differences are possible on the question of the suspension, and it is possible that these differences are implemented,” Rohani told the Shargh newspaper.
Rohani’s comments were published the day after hard-line President-elect Mahmood Ahmadinejad vowed “new measures” in the Islamic republic’s approach to the nuclear crisis as well as its foreign policy.
I another development, the new chief of Iran’s police promised an ethical and modern police force which would respect people’s privacy, countering fears he may roll back fragile social freedoms in the Islamic state. Ismail Ahmadi-Moqaddam, a former member of Iran’s hard-line Revolutionary Guards and acting commander of its militia wing, the Basij, was appointed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last week.
He replaced Mohammad Qalibaf, another former Revolutionary Guards commander who resigned earlier this year to compete in presidential elections won by Ahmadinejad. Qalibaf, who was eliminated in the first round of the presidential race, had won praise for modernizing the police force, admitting women to the ranks and dealing peacefully with several pro-democracy protests.
