Iran’s Khatami: US Tops List for Threatening World Peace
Tensions between Tehran and Washington, which broke diplomatic ties in 1980, have heightened in recent days as US officials have taken an increasingly tough line on the Islamic state.
“You look around the world at potential trouble spots, Iran is right at the top of the list,” US Vice President Dick Cheney said last week on the day George W. Bush was sworn in for a second four-year term as president.
Khatami, speaking to reporters after a meeting with Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai, responded in kind.
“We say that America is at the top of the list of countries which are endangering world peace and security and we hope that one day they come to their senses,” he said, adding he thought a change in US policy was very unlikely.
Iranian officials have been quick to stress that Tehran would respond vigorously to any military attack by the United States or Israel, which Cheney said may decide to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities.
“Iran will retaliate against any stupid moves by Israel,” Brig. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, ground forces commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was quoted as saying by the semi-official ILNA news agency.
Iran denies US and Israeli accusations that its nuclear facilities would be used to make atomic bombs. It says its nuclear ambitions do not stretch beyond generating electricity.
In a bid to allay concerns about its nuclear program Iran has agreed to halt activities which could be used to make nuclear bomb material, such as uranium enrichment, and to try to reach a negotiated solution with the European Union.
“(Negotiations with the EU) haven’t reached a dead end,” Khatami said. “Of course, we have our own stances and we are talking to the Europeans and we hope to reach a conclusion.”
The Islamic republic also responded to Israeli allegations that it was closer to developing a nuclear weapon, saying the latest accusations were designed to shift attention away from Israel’s own weapons and its “terror” against Palestinians.
In separate comments carried by the student news agency ISNA, the chief of the Revolutionary Guards said he did not believe Israel or the United States had the courage to attack but asserted that his forces were nonetheless at the ready.
“Even though the US and Israel do not have the courage to invade the Iranian nation, the Revolutionary Guards are in very good state of readiness to response to threats,” Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi said.
“The US can not bring security to the Middle East by pushing Iran aside. And if they plan conspiracies, the Iranian nation and its leadership will stand against expansionism with firmness,” he said.
And a Foreign Ministry statement rejected calls from Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres for the world to take action against Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “The unfounded claims of Israeli officials were made to deviate world attention from Israel’s organized terror activities and efforts to further strengthen its nuclear power,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.
He noted that “Israel refuses to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and put its nuclear activities under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), yet brazenly and maliciously tries to portray Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities as a threat to the world”.
“Israel’s continued trampling of the rights of the Palestinian people on flimsy excuses cannot wipe out the roots of their struggle or weaken their resistance and they will eventually be vindicated,” Asefi said.
Meanwhile, the EU has called on Iran to dismantle its nuclear fuel cycle activities, hardening its earlier stand that Iran should only suspend uranium enrichment, a diplomat said in Vienna yesterday.
