Asefi condemns US allegations against Iran

  
 

 

  
 

 
     
        Tehran, July 13, IRNA -- Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi here Saturday condemned the US anti-Iran allegations and said Washington is using old tactics to sow the seeds of discord in the Iranian society.
      The United States is interfering in Iran's domestic affairs, Asefi said adding that the White House opportunist policies show that the US officials have not a proper and exact understanding of the ideals of the Iranian Islamic Revolution.
      President George W. Bush on Friday expressed solidarity with dissident figures in Iran.
      Bush said that in the last two Iranian presidential elections and in parliamentary elections, the vast majority of the Iranian people voted for political and economic reform."
      He said when Iranian people move towards freedom and tolerance, the United States would be a close ally of Iran.
      The Information and Press Department of the Foreign Ministry reported that Asefi also rejected as "unfounded" the statements by the Bush's representative for Afghan affairs Zalmay Khalilzad on Iran.
      Khalilzad had said that Iran was the main factor behind the tensions in Afghanistan.
      Elsewhere, Asefi rejected US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's claims that Tehran was allowing militants from al-Qaeda terror network to move into its territory.
      Iran has extradited all foreign nationals, who were linked or were suspected of links to al-Qaeda in any form, to their country of origin and is still seriously pursuing this policy, he said.
      Iran is among the forerunners in the fight against terrorism and this fundamental policy became crystal clear in several junctures in Afghanistan, and the world acknowledged this as being key to the return of peace and stability into Afghanistan, Asefi added.
      On a visit to al Udaid Aid Base in Qatar on June 11, Rumsfeld reiterated US charges that Iran was pursuing weapons of mass destruction and sending terrorists to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, beside allowing militants from the al-Qaeda terror network and Afghanistan's defeated Taliban militia to move into its territory.
      Washington has propped up its bellicose stance against the Islamic Republic, with US President George W. Bush accusing Iran as part of an 'axis of evil' along with Iraq and North Korea.
      Tehran was key to the ouster of hardline Taliban and help in the establishment of the interim Afghan government.
      Iran in February said that it had arrested 150 infiltrators, suspected of links to hardline Taliban and al-Qaeda, at its borders with Pakistan.
 		  
 

    

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