Washington's charges against Iran baseless, lacking in wisdom: daily
Tehran, April 26, IRNA -- `Kayhan International' on Saturday dismissed
Washington's allegations against Iran in recent days as totally
baseless and lacking in wisdom.
Washington has accused Iran of sending intelligence agents to
Iraq and influencing the next government in that country.
Nearly three weeks after the fall of the Baghdad regime, the
invaders are still in Iraq. But in the case of Iran, it "has neither
occupied Iraq nor has sent anyone to Baghdad to dictate terms to the
Iraqis on what type of government should be formed and who is eligible
to take part," argued the English-language daily in its Viewpoint
column.
Having achieved their goal of toppling Saddam Hussein, the least
the White House officials could have done was to pack up their bags
and leave the country after giving a firm commitment to undertake
reconstruction of infrastructure and private sector facilities which
they had damaged.
A test of its sincerity to repair any damage it has done in
the recent war is for it to now redress the big blunder it made in
1980 when it pushed Saddam to invade Iran and supplied him with
internationally banned chemical weapons which caused untold miseries
to the Iranians which, to date, have not been compensated.
The irony of it all is that the US, which supported Iraq in the
imposed war and meddled in its internal affairs, is now accusing the
Islamic Republic of interference in Iraq's internal affairs while it
has long masterminded the taking over of Iraq's oil resources, lashed
out the daily.
Since the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran,
it is but natural that the Iraqi people, who share close religious
and cultural affinities with Iranians, would aspire to establish a
similar system in their land, it suggested.
"The rallies in Najaf, Karbala and other cities including parts
of Baghdad, especially in the holy suburb of Kazemain, with
vociferous slogans of al-youm Iran Ghadan Iraq (today Iran and
tomorrow Iraq) left no one in doubt that an Islamic government would
soon be formed in Iraq," the daily went on to say.
Sadly, the US has lived up to its image of the "Great Satan" and
through a palace coup brought the more brutal Saddam Hussein to power
in place of General Ahmad Hasan Bakr (no angel himself), the paper
wrote.
"The rest is well-documented evidence of American interference
in the fate of an entire nation which groaned under Baathist
boots, saw popular movements ruthlessly crushed, suffered the
execution of its endeared sons such as Ayatollah Muhammad Baqer
as-Sadr, and was dragged into wars," the paper wrote.
"Now with the fall of the detested dictator--albeit with the
hardening of Washington's heart against its own puppet--when the Iraqi
people are freely clamoring for Islamic rule and demanding that
Americans leave their country, the US is labeling wild charges
against Iran," it pointed out.
"Does the White House expect the Iraqi Muslims to opt for
Christianity, Judaism, or Communism?" asked the paper.
White House officials ought to be reminded that their kind of
democracy and, for this matter, Western models, certainly
do not appeal to Muslim masses, it said.
Muslims have in "the enlightened laws of Islam a far more
comprehensive and humanitarian code of civil, social, political and
cultural behavior," it pointed out.
In fact, "in the success of the Islamic system of government in
neighboring Iran, the Iraqi Muslims, whether Shiite, Sunni or Kurd,
have a practical model that ensures rights in society and negates
any notion of foreign domination," stressed the daily.
"It is but natural for the Iraqi people to call on their morally
upright ulema to lead them rather than be led by some unprincipled
secular democrats who would mortgage national wealth and interests to
the benefit of the US," it added.
It reminded the US of "the filial bonds between Iranians and the
Iraqis which have existed since time immemorial and which neither the
Baathists and their 8-year war could sever nor the British or the
Ottomans could before that as is evident by the present display of
brotherly sentiments," it pointed out.
Fortunately, "the Iranians and the Iraqis are proud to worship at
the same altar, the altar of freedom and justice, with a firm refusal
to bow to oppression, that was made immortal by the Martyr of
Karbala, of Imam Hussein (AS)" the daily concluded.
FH/LS
End
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