Middle East News
Foreign Minister: Iran has no history of violence
May 19, 2007, 16:23 GMT
Dead Sea, Jordan - Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki Saturday reiterated Iran's position on pursuing uranium enrichment, despite UN and US warnings, insisting 'Iran has no history of violence.'
During the Jordan-based World Economic Forum, Mottaki said that if Iran's nuclear activities are approved, it will be ready to answer questions.
'Questions we can answer (are) based on two important pillars. The first pillar is removing any concerns or ambiguities in the mind of any parties. and the second pillar is (for the international commnutiy) to accept and realize the right of Iran to have nuclear technology,' he said during an evening session entitled 'Iran and the region.'
He added: 'Of course, it's for peaceful purposes (but) we have to establish a bridge to start negotiations without any preconditions.'
Mottaki told reporters a story he believed proved their 'good intentions' and their refusal to use mass destruction weapons even in times of war.
According to Mottaki, during the Iraq-Iran war some commanders tried to get Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's permission to 'find a small scale of chemical weapons' in order to retaliate against then Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's army.
'Our innocent people were suffering and even now every (family) has martyrs. But Imam Khomeni did not allow the use of chemical weapons. '
Meanwhile, Mottaki's remarks did not exclude criticism of Western government who oppose Iran's nuclear programme, US topping the list.
'The countries who have been the first users of nuclear bomb against the people and civilians, and the countries who are currently testing the latest generation of nuclear bombs are (the ones who are) saying that some countries have no right to have nuclear energy.'
He added that the US kept changing its position towards Iran's nuclear capacity over the years. According to Mottaki, initially the US wanted Iran to have nuclear energy so as not to use up its oil and gas resources.
'The US was committed to produce 23,000 megawatt of electricity in Iran through nuclear power plants,' he said.
'When Iran now wants to enjoy its rights through these agreements, we're facing the obstacles. We hope that our Russian friends are not facing political problems or political obstacles to send the nuclear fuel to Iran for Busher (key Iran-based nuclear plantation),' he said.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in Middle East
- 1. Jerusalem prelate tells Arab Spring youth to have confidence
- 2. More than 100 killed in Syria ahead of ceasefire deadline
- 3. At least 43 killed in Syria, despite UN criticism
- 4. 19 killed in Syria as ceasefire deadline approaches
- 5. Pilgrims flock to Jerusalem for Easter, Passover
Older Talkback
page: 1
h**p://www.iranterror.com
Iranian List of Terror Attacks
November 04, 1979 American diplomats were taken hostage and held for 444 days in Tehran.
1980 A car bomb detonated in London killing two people. Kourosh Fouladi, a MOIS member was arrested and imprisoned until 1989 for carrying out the attack. In 1996 Fouladi became a member of Iran's Majlis (Parliament).
April 1983 A truck loaded with explosives blew up in front of the American embassy in Beirut. Sixty-one were killed and 120 more were injured.
August 1983 An Air France 747 jumbo jet was hijacked after it took off from Vienna Airport en route to Tehran. The plane was blown up by the hijackers on the tarmac of Tehran's Mehrabad Airport.
October 23, 1983 The headquarters of the U.S. Marines in Beirut was destroyed in a suicide attack by Iran's terrorist surrogates, resulting in 241 dead, 80 seriously wounded.
March 1984 William Buckley, an American citizen living in Lebanon, was abducted by Iranian terrorist surrogates. He was secretly taken to Tehran, where he was killed in 1985 by the Revolutionary Guards.
December 03, 1984 Peter Kilburn, a librarian at the American University of Beirut, was abducted by Iran's terrorist surrogates. He was killed in1986.
May 22, 1985 Michel Seurat, a French writer, was kidnapped by mullahs' agents in Lebanon. He was murdered three years later by the hostage-takers.
June 1985 A TWA Boeing 727 was hijacked en route to Rome and Athens and was diverted to Beirut. One of the passengers on board who was a diver in the U.S. Navy was executed on the plane by the hijackers.
July 1985 Two bombs planted in two restaurants in Kuwait resulted in the death of 10 people and the injury of 80.
November 09, 1985 French police discovered a suitcase containing machine guns, handguns, grenades and bullets in the luggage of the Iran Air crew in Roissy Airport.
February 07, 1986 German police announced that two suspected Iranian terrorists abandoned their car and fled after they were pursued by the police. Their car had been used in previous terrorist attacks in France, and weapons and documents were discovered in the car.
March 18, 1986 Tunisian authorities announced that a terrorist group linked with Iran had been uncovered and 20 of its members had been arrested. The group called itself Hizbollah Al-Mokhtar
August 28, 1986 A large quantity of explosives, plastic bombs, and weapons was discovered in the luggage of Iranian 'Pilgrims' arriving in Saudi Arabia for the annual Haj Pilgrimage. Saudi police arrested 100 of the undercover agents sent by the mullahs' regime
September 1986 A wave of bombings in public places shocked Paris. Fouad Ali Saleh was convicted of killing 12 and injuring hundreds. He was arrested in
March 1987 while transferring explosives into a car in Paris.
July 1987 A DC-10 plane belonging to Air Afrique was hijacked by terrorists of the mullah regime. During the hijacking of the plane a French passenger was killed in the Vienna Airport. The president of Switzerland said the Iranian government was responsible.
August 01, 1987 Agents of the Iranian regime staged a riot in Mecca during the Muslim annual Hajj pilgrimage as part of a wider plan to destabilize the Saudi regime. The Saudi government said 402 persons were killed and 650 were wounded; 85 Saudi policemen were among the dead.
August 01, 1987 Embassies of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in Tehran were occupied by government-organized mobs, and a diplomat was killed.
April 05, 1988 A Kuwaiti 747 jumbo was hijacked in Bangkok and landed in Mashhad, eastern Iran. One of the mullahs' terrorists of Lebanese origin boarded the plane in Iran and led the terrorist operation. During the 15-day ordeal, two passengers were killed by hijackers.
December 22, 1988 Pan Am flight 103 exploded in midair over Lockerbie Scotland
February 14, 1989 Khomeini issued a fatwa (religious decree) to kill Salman Rushdie, an Indian-born British author, for writing Satanic Verses.
May 27, 1989 The Turkish daily Hurriyet reported that a 14-man group trying to infiltrate Turkey from Iran to carry out terrorist attacks had been arrested. The group's leader, Esmat Kamal, had been involved in the assassination of a Saudi diplomat in Ankara
July 31, 1989 Colonel William Higgins, an American officer working for the United Nations in Lebanon, was abducted and executed by the Iranian regime's agents. A video recording of his hanging was given to international news agencies.
1989 During the Muslim annual Hajj pilgrimage, three bombs were exploded around the holy site of Mecca. Scores of people were injured.
December 23, 1989 Mehrdad Kowkabi, an Iranian, was charged with the attempted arson of a London bookshop and planning a bomb attack in connection with Salman Rushdie.
January 30, 1990 French Television Channel 1 broadcast an interview with Lotti Ben-Khala, a terrorist agent who was trained in Iran. He said the mullahs planned a terrorist attack on a French nuclear facility that would have resulted in 10,000 deaths.
July 03, 1991 The Italian translator of Satanic Verses was stabbed and injured. The assailant said that he was an Iranian who was seeking Rushdie's whereabouts.
July 21, 1991 Professor Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator of The Satanic Verses, was stabbed to death.
December 29, 1991 Following the arrest of one of the mullahs' terrorists in Bern, the regime barred the employees of the Swiss embassy from leaving Tehran
March 1992 Relations between Bern and Tehran were severed after an Iranian terrorist was arrested in Switzerland. A Swiss businessman disappeared in Tehran. Later it was discovered that he had been taken hostage.
March 17, 1992 An attack against the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires resulted in the death of 20 and the injury of 250 people.
November 21, 1992 French police announced the arrest of two Iranians involved in several assassinations in Europe.
December 29, 1992 Palestinian President Yasser Arafat told Egypt's parliament that the Iranian regime finances Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other radical groups and recently paid them $30 million.
January 27, 1993 The Turkish interior minister said a terrorist network linked with the Iranian regime carried out the assassination of Turkish journalist Ugur Mumcu
January 27, 1993 Turkish police arrested a group of Turkish Hizbollah members, who were trained in Iran, and charged them with the killing of Hikmet Cettin, a Turkish journalist
April 25, 1993 The New York Times reported that at least $100,000 had been deposited in the account of the prime suspects of the February 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The money primarily came from Iran.
July 08, 1993 Egyptian security forces arrested 165 Islamic fundamentalists. Two of them had been trained in a terrorist training center in Mashad, eastern Iran
October 11, 1993 The Norwegian publisher of Salman's book, William Nigaard, was hit with three bullets from the back in an unsuccessful assassination attempt
June 02, 1994 AFP reported that U.S. intelligence officials said Iran has secretly planted 400 members of the Revolutionary Guards in Bosnia in order to set up terrorist cells in the former slavia
July 18, 1994 A bomb at the Amia Jewish Center in Buenos Aires left 85 civilians dead and 230 injured. Argentine intelligence officials later announced that the Qods Force’s former commander, Ahmad Vahidi, helped plan the bombing.
April 10, 1996 Four diplomats of the mullahs' regime in Turkey were expelled because of their role in the assassination of Zahra Rajabi and a Turkish intellectual.
May 13, 1996 The Iranian Resistance exposed a plan by the MOIS to attack the residence of Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the NCRI, in a Paris suburb.
May 23, 1996 Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said: 'A clandestine group intended to assassinate me. They acted upon a religious decree from Iran.'
June 05, 1996 Bahrain's Interior Minister exposed a plan to topple the ruling family by fundamentalist Shiites. The leader of the group, Ali Kazem Almottaqavi, had been living in Iran since 1983. He was led by Brigadier General Ahmad Sharifi of the Revolutionary Guards. (Brigadier General Sharifi, commander of the Qods Force's Sixth Brigade, was one of the eight main operational commanders of the Qods Force).
June 1996 The government of Bahrain announced the discovery of a local Hizbollah terrorist cell, whose members were trained and sponsored by the Iranian regime.
September 24, 1996 An Iranian diplomat was arrested and later expelled by the government of Tajikistan for his role in exporting fundamentalism and terrorism to this country.
February 02, 1997 The Turkish government expelled an Iranian diplomat for active involvement in exporting fundamentalism and terrorism to turkey.
February 02, 1997 Terrorists were trained in Imam Sadeq's training base near Qom. They were flown to a third country from Tehran in spring 1996. They were transferred to Saudi Arabia and implemented their plans.
October 12, 1998 A government-affiliated institution raised its bounty for Salman Rushdie's head to $2.8 million.
August 23, 1999 The written testimony of Argentina's vice-President to the judiciary of this country cited evidence pointing to the Iranian regime's role in the bombing of the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires in July 1994.
April 26, 2001 The Conference of Palestinian Intifada in Tehran called for the annihilation of Israel.
May 12, 2003 The Washington Post reported on Oct. 14, 2003 that Saad bin Laden was managing the Al-Qaeda organization from Iran under the protection of the Qods Force. 'Saad bin Laden and other senior al Qaeda operatives were in contact with an al Qaeda cell in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in the days immediately prior to the May 12 suicide bombing there that left 35 people dead, including eight Americans, European and U.S. intelligence sources say.' It added that the contacts have led to the conclusion that the Riyadh attacks were planned in Iran and ordered from there. 'Like other al Qaeda leaders in Iran, the younger bin Laden, who is believed to be 24 years old, is protected by an elite, radical Iranian security force loyal to the nation’s clerics ... Also under the Jerusalem [Qods] Force’s protection is Saif al-Adel, al Qaeda’s chief of military operations; Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, the organization’s chief financial officer, and perhaps two dozen other top al Qaeda leaders, the officials said.'
January 19, 2005 Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reaffirmed Khomeini's fatwa for the death of Salman Rushdie, labelling him 'an apostate whose killing would be authorised by Islam.'
January 23, 2005 The Sunday Telegraph reported that Pakistani officials blamed Iran for fuelling a growing insurgency in Baluchistan. 'Officials in Islamabad believe Iran is encouraging 'intruders' from its own Bal-och community to cross the 550-mile border with the Pakistani province, and give support to the rebels. All this violence is a part of a greater conspiracy, a senior government official told The Telegraph. 'These militants would not be challenging the government so openly without the back-up of a foreign hand.' ... Pakistan's ISI intelligence service set up a unit in the provincial capital, Quetta, last year to monitor suspected Iranian activity in Baluchistan. Officials say that in addition to directly supporting the insurgency, Teheran's state-controlled radio has launched a propaganda campaign against Islamabad.'
The other nuclear powers of the world will soon reinstitute the common sense of a world-wide MAD policy. Any country that fires a nuclear weapon gets attacked by every other country that has nuclear weapons. This MAD (mutual assured destruction) policy worked for a half-century during the Cold War. It will keep crazy mullahs in line as well.
page: 1
Islam the true source of violenceMay 19th, 2007 - 17:52:17
h**p://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
Report this comment