IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN!
Posted on 10/07/2002 3:36:46 PM PDT by knighthawk
TEHRAN, Oct 6 (AFP) - President Mohammad Khatami warned Sunday that a unilateral US attack on Iraq posed a greater threat to the Middle East than the Baghdad regime against which Tehran fought a 1980-1988 war.
The most serious danger is the great powers' unilateral steps based on the use of force to change the face of the region and the destiny of a country through military intervention," he said, quoted by state radio.
Khatami was discussing the US push to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, with the secretary general of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, Abdul Wahed Belqeziz.
The president urged Muslim countries to act to prevent a US attack, while making sure that Baghdad conforms with all UN resolutions that demand Iraq destroy all its weapons of mass destruction.
Tehran, an arch-foe of the United States, has repeatedly voiced its opposition to any US attack on Iraq not carried out under the umbrella of the United Nations.
Iran fears it could be next on Washington's hit list after US President George W. Bush branded the Islamic republic part of an "axis of evil", along with Iraq and North Korea, last January.
Khatami also blasted a clause in a new US law effectively recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital, although President George W. Bush has said he will ignore it.
The Iranian leader called the law "an insult and injustice to the great Palestinian nation" and said "all the Islamic and Arab world is against it."
He called for Arab and Muslim states and organisations to "energetically protest" the decision.
Bush had opposed Congress' insertion of the language in the 2003 budget for the US State Department but signed the legislation anyway.
Despite Bush's pledge not to implement the Jerusalem clause, the law has caused a furore across the Arab and Muslim worlds, which already see the Bush administration as blatantly pro-Israeli.
The official US line is that the status of the city, which is revered by Jews, Muslims and Christians alike, should be resolved in talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
This article is a real contender for the DUH award of the day. You bet we're going to change the destiny of Iraq, and all to the good. If Saddam unleashes the Bomb, the entire country will be laid waste; they should be glad we're going to take out the villain and his weapons without hurting the people now.
Yes, invading Iraq will probably cause instability in the mid-east. But, as blogger Steven Den Beste says, that's not a bug, that's a feature.
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