This was today's news from Iran's IRNA:
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Khatami: Good-versus-evil view has world on brink of a war
Tehran, Feb 11, IRNA -- President Mohammad Khatami here Sunday
decried a good-versus-evil dichotomy, warning that the idea could push
the world to the precipice of a war.
"Naturally, this self-centered division of the world exposes it to
a war whose start is known but its end is unfathomable," he told a
group of Tehran-based ambassadors and foreign representatives.
Khatami, the architect of the internationally-acclaimed 'dialogue
among civilizations', described such a view of the world as clamoring
for 'a war coalition' which 'sees the world divided to two parts of
bright and dark or friends and foes'.
"Thus, anybody who sees 'us' right considers 'them' as foes,"
Khatami said, and invited the world instead to embrace 'coalition for
peace' which he proposed first in November during a UN General
Assembly meeting in New York.
"The idea of peace coalition is based on the common principles of
international treaties and the result of many years of international
efforts under the United Nation's auspices," he said.
Khatami's remarks were in reaction to US President George W.
Bush's lumping of Iran, along with Iraq and North Korea, at a corner
of an "axis of evil."
"It seems that an effective number of the American statespersons
today are moving on a track... which is to the detriment of the
American nation in the first place and augurs of increased threats to
the US," the Iranian president said.
"It is time for the unseasoned American statespersons to revise
their policies before it is too late, and not let US national
interests fall pray to violent and suppressive terrorists," Khatami
added.
A war coalition, he said, will lead to a new arms competition,
divergence of the world, spread of terrorism and an ultimate war, he
warned.
"All of us must be worried about the fact that the US president
has presented the highest defense budget bill to the Congress,"
Khatami said, referring to Washington's 379-billion-dollar plan for
2003, said to be the largest in two decades.
"I, beside reiterating my respect for the American people,
regretfully announce that they are having their respectable standing
and vital interests sold at the expense of policies which have no
conformity with the US constitution and humanitarian ideals, declared
in that," he added.
Khatami denounced as "irresponsible, insulting and bellicose"
remarks of the American rulers against Iranians, saying "the
esteemed Iranian nation will showcase their commitment to the
anti-hegemonic and democratic ideals of the Islamic Revolution"
during the Monday rally to mark its 23rd anniversary.
"The idea of the war coalition is based on military force and the
call for political, economic and cultural domination in the aftermath
of the Cold War and end of the bipolar world. It is also a policy to
make the vision of a unipolar world realistic," he added.
Khatami stressed Iran's detente policies and its anti-terror
efforts, especially in Afghanistan which Tehran helped with topple
the hardline Taliban and form an interim government.
"All now agree that if it was not for the good will and
cooperation of Iran, the tragic problem of Afghanistan which has
hurt us more than anybody else, could not have been settled so
easily," he added, referring to the Islamic Republic's key role in a
Bonn conference which named Hamid Karzai as the head of the Afghan
interim government.
"At present, most of our efforts are focused on helping with
the establishment of peace and security in our neighboring country
and assisting the interim government to build a stable government
relying on people's will, in Afghanistan," Khatami added.
The Iranian president stated that Tehran follows a policy of
non-interference in internal affairs of other countries, beside
supporting "legitimate struggles of oppressed people against their
oppressors throughout the world."
Khatami drew a parallel between the racist Israeli regime and
the fascist regime of the Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, saying,
the irony of our contemporary history is that the victims of fascism
today are following fascist policies through denying right of
accommodation to the oppressed Palestinian nation."
Iran does not recognize the Zionist Israeli regime.
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Despite his other comments, that last comparison pretty well sums up why even the moderate view is suspect.... Kevin
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