If Zinni doesn't get anything, Iran's next shipment might scrape through....
Friday January 11 5:54 AM ET
Iran's Rafsanjani Calls Bush 'Rude' for Warnings
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Friday called President Bush ``rude and impudent'' for warning Iran against harboring al Qaeda fighters.
Bush warned Iran Thursday not to become a safe haven for members of the al Qaeda network fleeing from neighboring Afghanistan or try to destabilize the new interim government in Kabul.
Iran's Foreign Ministry swiftly denied it had allowed followers of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden into the country and said it was not trying to exert influence over Afghanistan's new rulers.
``How does (Bush) dare speak to our nation in such a rude and impudent manner,'' Rafsanjani, chief adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a prayer sermon.
``Such threats do not have the intended results,'' Rafsanjani told thousands of worshippers gathered for the traditional Friday prayers at Tehran University.
The United States severed relations with Iran in 1980, one year after the Islamic revolution toppled the late shah, a U.S. ally. The two countries have had hostile relations since.
Rafsanjani also castigated Washington for what he said was its approval of Israel's continued military incursions in occupied territories which increased the ``oppression of the Palestinian people.''
``They are destroying the homes of impoverished Palestinians with bulldozers and tanks, killing and injuring civilians while the world looks on and says nothing,'' he said.
Israeli tanks and bulldozers demolished Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip Thursday in retaliation for a Palestinian raid that killed four Israeli soldiers.
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