Posted on 02/17/2006 5:55:11 PM PST by blam
Blair brushes off Iran's call for troop withdrawal
By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor
(Filed: 18/02/2006)
Tony Blair dismissed Iran's call for Britain to withdraw its troops from Iraq yesterday as a tactic designed to divert attention from the international campaign to curb Teheran's nuclear programme.
The Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, demanded the pull-out of British forces around Basra, saying their presence was causing turmoil both in Iraq and southern Iran.
The Prime Minister meets Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin
"Iran demands the immediate withdrawal of British forces from Basra," Mr Mottaki said during a visit to Lebanon. "We believe that the presence of the British military forces in Basra has led to the destabilisation of the security situation in the city."
His comments come amid an intense propaganda campaign by Teheran to blame a series of bombings in southern Iran on British commanders across the border.
Mr Mottaki also appeared to be trying to exploit Iraqi resentment after the release of video images depicting British soldiers beating Iraqi protesters.
British officials said Mr Mottaki's remarks might be a warning to Britain that Teheran could make life difficult for British forces in Iraq if the United Nations imposed sanctions on Iran, or if America took military action to destroy its nuclear facilities.
But the Prime Minister, meeting the German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, gave Teheran short shrift.
"What I would say to the Iranians is that there is no point in trying to divert attention from the issues to do with Iran by calling into question the British presence in Iraq which is there with a UN mandate and Iraqi support.
"British troops are in Iraq under a United Nations mandate and with the consent of the Iraqi government.
"They stay as long as the UN mandate is in place and as long as the Iraq government wishes us to stay, and we now have a fully democratically elected government about to take shape in Iraq."
Tensions between Iran and the West have risen sharply after the International Atomic Energy Agency decided earlier this month to report Teheran to the UN Security Council for breaching its nuclear obligations.
Teheran says it is developing nuclear facilities for "peaceful purposes". But the West believes that its nuclear programme - especially its facilities to enrich uranium - are secretly intended to develop atomic weapons.
Iran has argued that it does not intend to build nuclear weapons because they contravene Islam. But at least some hardline clerics appear to be changing their mind.
Rooz, a reformist Iranian internet daily, this week reported a hardline cleric, Mohsen Gharavian, as saying that nuclear weapons could be justified under Islamic Sharia law.
I demand that the Iranians expel their current president from office, arrest him, and put him on trial.
My demands have more impact than his request of Tony Blair.
Iran is playing with fire. In fact, they're playing with the surface of the sun with their bare hands.
There are times,in my macabre fantasies,that I picture the entire Middle East (minus Israel) as an endless sheet of glass.
*sigh* Sounds very peaceful...
Dream on Iran!!!!!!
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