Saturday, November 02, 2002

Iranian Leader Says U.S. Helps bin Laden's Image

In a sharp criticism of the United States, President Mohammad Khatami of Iran said today that his country opposed a war against neighboring Iraq and charged that Washington's misguided campaign against terrorism had strengthened support for Osama bin Laden in the Muslim world.

"Have the erroneous policies of the United States made bin Laden more popular or more hated than before in various sectors of the Islamic world?" Mr. Khatami asked in a joint news conference with the Spanish prime minister, José María Aznar, during a three-day official visit to Spain. "Have the erroneous policies of the United States weakened Islamic trends that favor wisdom and democracy? The United States with its hegemony has strengthened bin Laden, so we ought to condemn it in some way for supporting terrorism."

Mr. Khatami even likened the logic of Mr. bin Laden to that of President Bush.

"I hear a discourse from two poles," Mr. Khatami said in his native Persian. "One is the voice raised from Afghanistan by bin Laden that says, `Whoever is not with us must be destroyed.' The other is the voice from the United States that says, `Whoever is not with us is against us."' He added, "That is a logic which on one side leads to the most atrocious forms of terror and, on the other side, on the pretext of confronting terrorism, creates the worst type of atmosphere for waging war."

Iran's position toward Iraq is complicated by the fact that there is no love lost between Iran's ruling clerics and President Saddam Hussein. Mr. Khatami noted today that Mr. Hussein invaded Iran in 1980 and used chemical weapons against Iran during the eight-year border war that followed.

"Of course the whole world knows we've suffered greatly at the hands of Iraq and the Iraqi regime," Mr. Khatami said. He suggested that there was a double standard in the extraordinary reaction against Mr. Hussein today compared with the world's inaction when he turned chemical weapons against Iran and even against Iraqi civilians.

"If chemical weapons are bad, why when they were used against us or Iraqi citizens wasn't Iraq condemned and pressured?" he asked.

But Iran, which shares a long border with Iraq, is vehemently opposed to a unilateral American war against its neighbor and the installation of a government of Washington's choosing in Baghdad. Iranians of all political persuasions are deeply suspicious of American designs on the Persian Gulf, recalling that a C.I.A.-led coup overthrew the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 and returned the shah to the throne.

"We have said several times that we are against any military attack on Iraq and any unilateral action in resolving international issues," Mr. Khatami said. "To intervene in the internal affairs of a nation is a dangerous precedent."

But he called on Iraq to comply with Security Council resolutions, and hinted that Iran would not object to the use of force against Iraq if the Security Council decided it had not. "If in the international scene there needs to be further steps taken, we believe that there should be support from the United Nations and the international community for these steps," Mr. Khatami said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/30/international/middleeast/30KHAT.html

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