TEHRAN, Sept. 15--Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani said on Saturday some US allies in the Middle East have dispatched terrorists to Iraq.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Doha-based Al-Jazeera television, Larijani asked, “Why doesn’t the US confront these terrorists? I have confirmed information that the US Central Intelligence Agency and some regional intelligence agencies support these terrorists. Of course, we have done our best to calm the situation in Iraq.“
Commenting on political conditions in Iraq, Larijani pointed out that the Iraqi strategy is based on democracy, but some countries do not care about Iraq’s democracy.
He conceded that some mistakes might be made in using democratic tactics.
“An Arab leader said the present Iraqi leaders are US stooges, while he himself has close relations with American officials,“ he said.
Larijani pointed out that calling Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki a US mercenary is wrong.
“Al-Maliki’s past is a clear indication of what he really is,“ he added.
Commenting on claims that Iraq’s incumbent leaders are affiliated to Iran, he said none of them is close to Iran.
“The point is that when the executed Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, killed the Iraqi people and the West provided him with chemical weapons, these people did not have any other place to go other than Iran and Syria. Al-Maliki was not in Iran at that time, as he was in Syria,“ he said.
Asked whether Iran’s reaction to an anti-Iran resolution will be to quit the Non-Proliferation Treaty, he denied by saying other options are available for confronting such a resolution.
On the West’s concern about Iran continuing its uranium enrichment activities, Larijani said as long as Iran’s nuclear activities are supervised by the International Atomic Energy Agency, no one should be concerned about them.
“I think the Americans are troublemakers and if they have a problem with Iran’s nuclear activities, we have offered them the option of dialogue,“ he said.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

TEHRAN, Sept. 15--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz discussed regional developments, especially Tehran-Riyadh ties.
In a telephone conversation on Saturday, Ahmadinejad felicitated King Abdullah on the advent of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, ISNA reported.
The chief executive noted that since the enemies of Islam cannot harm nations, they try to sow seeds of discord among Muslim countries, particularly Iran and Saudi Arabia.
“While Muslim countries are working to forge unity among Muslim states, the enemies are doing their best to create a rift among nations,“ he said.
Ahmadinejad thanked King Abdullah for providing Iranian Haj pilgrims with suitable services.

King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is confident that the Saudi officials, particularly King Abdullah, pursue Muslim unity,“ he said.
Referring to the enemies’ efforts to impede Iran’s nuclear progress, Ahmadinejad pointed out that Iran’s conditions in the International Atomic Energy Agency at the international level is satisfactory and Iran’s nuclear rights have been restored.
In response, King Abdullah congratulated Ahmadinejad and prayed to God that the holy month will have blessings for both the Iranian and Saudi nations.

Kamal Kharrazi

TEHRAN, Sept. 15--A senior official urged diplomats to try to change the current international ambience and prevent further pressures by enemies.
Head of the Strategic Foreign Relations Council Kamal Kharrazi told ISNA that the current political independence should be maintained with prudence, wisdom and expedience.
Kharrazi said political players should avoid extremism in making foreign policy decisions.
Referring to the concept of Dialogue Among Civilizations presented by former President Mohammad Khatami to the United Nations in 2001 against Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations, he noted that a war of civilizations has started since September 11 attacks.
Kharrazi, an ex-foreign minister, said there is a serious clash of interests between Tehran and Washington, adding that this should not be intensified.
“We should act in a prudent manner to stabilize ourselves [against the United States],“ he said.
Commenting on the three rounds of talks between Iran and the US over Iraq as a “tactic and not a strategy“, the official said as long as Americans continue their occupation in Iraq, no stability and security can be established in the country.
“Iran is not in a position to negotiate with the US on comprehensive issues. Talks with Americans over Iraq will stop if they don’t show commitment to mutual respect,“ he said.
Asked about Iran’s national security and interests after the September 11 attacks which led to the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, Kharrazi said the Islamic Republic has been always looking to maintain its security and national interests.
He noted that Americans invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, and established military bases in the Persian Gulf under the pretext of the “war on terror“.
Kharrazi further said that he pursued the policy of dŽtente and strengthening of economic ties during his term in office during 1997-2005 as foreign minister.

WASHINGTON,
Sept. 15--A religious delegation from Iran has cancelled a scheduled visit to the United States this week after members of the group were denied visas by the State Department.
The denial of the visa applications of four of the 14 delegation members was denounced by one of the trip’s sponsors, who suggested Washington’s move was consistent with a policy of confrontation, rather than engagement, with Iran, IPS News reported.
“We are disappointed and troubled that the administration denied the visas...particularly because we received assurances from the State Department that [it] would move heaven and earth to make this reciprocal religious leaders’ visit possible,“ said Joe Volk, executive secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker group.
“The denials parallel a disturbing escalation of rhetoric against Iran and further demonstrate this administration’s current strategy of confrontation rather than diplomacy. Again, this administration appears to be choosing the war path rather than the negotiating table,“ he added.
A State Department official confirmed that the visas have not been approved.
The decision means that the Iranians will be unable to reciprocate a visit last February of a diverse group of US Christian leaders, representing Union Methodist, Episcopal, Baptist, Catholic, Evangelical, Quaker, and Mennonite traditions.
While in Iran, they met with a range of religious, cultural, and political figures, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who reportedly told them that he was open to unconditional talks with the US government “if we see some goodwill“.
The group was the first from the United States to hold a face-to-face meeting with an Iranian president since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
“The Iranian government has already built a bridge toward the American people by inviting our delegation to come to Iran,“ said the US delegation upon its return. It urged the administration of President George W. Bush to “welcome a similar delegation“ in order to help bring “a new day in US-Iranian relations“.
But despite two rounds of bilateral talks about stabilizing Iraq between US and Iranian envoys since then, tensions between the two countries have risen steadily. “The fact that the US government has pulled the plug by denying these visas proves to us that the prospect that Americans and Iranians of various faiths shaking hands and talking together and determining their common interests was simply not the image the Bush administration wanted to portray of the Iranians,“ said Mary Ellen McNish, general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee.

Karel de Gucht

TEHRAN, Sept. 15--Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht arrived in Tehran late Saturday.
He is expected to hold talks with Iranian officials on ways of upgrading Tehran-Brussels economic cooperation and the Iranian nuclear program, IRNA reported.
De Gucht will also thank the Iranian officials for helping release the Belgian hostages and exchange views with Iranian officials on avenues for bolstering Iranian relations with the European Union.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Police secured the release of two Belgian nationals Stefaan Boeve, 28, and Carla Van Den Eeckhoudt, 37, who were abducted to Pakistan by bandits in Sistan-Baluchestan province.

GENEVA, Sept. 15--The United Nations investigator on racism condemned a rising trend of Islamaphobia, especially in Europe, where he said it was being exploited by some rightwing political parties.
Doudou Diene, UN special rapporteur on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance, also accused Switzerland’s most popular party, the rightwing Swiss People’s Party (SVP/UDC), of inciting hatred, Reuters reported.
He urged the withdrawal of the party’s controversial campaign poster calling for expulsion of foreigners who commit serous crimes, depicting three white sheep booting out a black sheep under the headline “For the Security of All“.
“In the current context, Islamaphobia constitutes the most serious form of religious defamation,“ Diene said in a speech and report to the UN Human Rights Council, whose 47 member-states were holding a debate on religious defamation.
More and more political leaders and influential media and intellectuals were “equating Islam with violence and terrorism,“ and some were seeking to “silence religious practices by banning the construction of mosques“, Diene said.
Pakistan, speaking for the Organization of Islamic Conference, called the rise of Islamaphobia ’alarming’.
“Recent acts of defamation in the shape of blasphemous sketches in Sweden and posters in Switzerland reinforce this conclusion. Such blasphemy should not be encouraged in the name of freedom of expression,“ Pakistan’s envoy Masood Khan said.
He said the 57-nation OIC, which represents 1.3 billion Muslims, condemned terrorism in all its forms.
“The international media continues to use the misguided actions of a small extremist minority as an excuse to malign the entire Muslim world, as well as the religion of Islam,“ he said.
Diene, a Senegalese lawyer, said in his 21-page report to the Council that Islamaphobia had grown since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Worldwide, an increasing number of traditional democratic parties were “resorting to the language of fear and exclusion, scapegoating and targeting ethnic or religious minorities in general, and immigrants and refugees in particular“, he said.
In Europe, Muslims faced growing difficulties to establish places of worship and carry out their religious practices such as dietary regimens and burials, according to the UN envoy.
“Political parties with open anti-Islamic platforms have joined governmental coalitions in several countries and started to put in place their political agendas. In sum, Islamophobia is in the process of permeating all facets of social life.“
The Swiss SVP/UDC has launched a referendum to ban construction of minarets in the Alpine country, home to 350,000 Muslims. A similar move is underway in Cologne, Germany.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 15-- Pakistan’s ruling party has finalized its strategy for reelecting President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to a new five-year term and the vote will likely take place in the first week of October, top party officials said Saturday.
An announcement of the date from the Election Commission is imminent, the officials said Saturday--a day after opposition leader Benazir Bhutto’s party announced she would return to Pakistan on Oct. 18 after an eight-year exile to help restore democracy, AP reported.
“As far as the ruling party is concerned, we have finalized our strategy to elect the president for another five-year term ... We have enough votes to easily elect President Musharraf for another term,“ said Azeem Chaudhry, a senior official in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party.
Two ruling party officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the vote would take place in the first week of October, ignoring Bhutto’s suggestion, who wanted Musharraf to seek a vote from the new parliament after the parliamentary elections.
The president, whose term expires Nov. 15, is elected by an electoral college of all national and provincial lawmakers. The five-year term for the current parliament expires later this year.
The officials said a delegation from the ruling party--headed by its chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain--met with Musharraf on Saturday to assure him that they would elect him for another term. Chaudhry said during negotiations with Musharraf, Bhutto had demanded too much from the government in return for backing the military leader, including that the constitution be amended so she could become prime minister for a third term if her party wins parliamentary elections--due by January 2008.
On Friday, Bhutto’s party announced the two-time former prime minister, who left the country in 1999 amid corruption allegations, will return home on Oct. 18 to campaign in the parliamentary elections, regardless of the outcome of her talks with Pakistan’s US-allied military leader.
Despite the uncertainty over the talks, the government says that on her return, Bhutto will not suffer the fate of political rival Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister who was swiftly expelled when he came back from exile Monday. But officials said she would have to face pending corruption charges.