‘Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan part of one large family’
UNITED NATIONS: President Mahmoud Amedinejad of Iran has warned that enhancing the US-led Nato troops and stepping up their activities in the neighbourhood could destablise the region.
Addressing a crowded news conference after delivering his address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) he said, “Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan are part of one large family and they have historic ties and cultural links.”
He said that such forces cannot achieve their objectives since the history of the region bears testimony to the fact that every invader met with a disgraceful end. Earlier addressing the world body in its 63rd summit session, the Iranian president vowed that Iran would pursue nuclear technology despite Western “bullying” as Russia apparently scuttled a push for new sanctions against Tehran.
To a question, he warned that any one, who disturbed the equilibrium of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan would “fall headlong to the ground”. He said foreign troops in Afghanistan and Iran have always suffered disgrace and defeat. Without naming the United States, he said it is unaware of the history of the region. He cited the examples of the British and the former Soviet Union that had invaded Afghanistan and had to leave it in utter disgrace. There is no guarantee, he added, that the Nato forces now in Afghanistan will fare any better.
“They do not understand our culture, nor our system, nor our traditions. Human relations cannot be established or conducted with military might,” he said. In another cutting reference to the United States in Afghanistan, Ahmedinejad said, “They are fighting terrorism and extremism but it has multiplied. They are not successful.”
The problem of terrorism needs a political and negotiated settlement and not a military solution, he added. To a question about the Iran-Pakistan pipeline, he said, “I met the President of Pakistan today and we noted progress on this project and we hope to sign an agreement in the near future.” The Iranian president earlier delivered a defiant speech to UNGA. He said that Iran “will resist the bullying and has defended and will continue to defend its rights.”
In a clear reference to the United States and its allies, he said: “They oppose other nation’s progress and tend to monopolise technologies and to use those monopolies in order to impose their will on other nations.”
He also lashed out at Israel, saying, “the Zionist regime is on a definite slope to collapse and there is no way for it to get out of the cesspool created by itself and its supporters.”Despite three rounds of UN Security Council sanctions, Iran continues to defy calls by the United States and its Western allies to halt uranium enrichment — a process the West and Israel fear is being used to make an atomic bomb. Whereas Iran has always said that it aims only for peaceful civilian nuclear energy, he added.
However, with the UN Security Council divided, Ahmadinejad was confident that Iran was unlikely to face tougher action soon.In the latest evidence of splits among world powers, Russia’s foreign ministry rejected a US-led call for a new meeting on Iran.
“We do not believe that the US policy perspective, looking at the rest of the world as a field of confrontation, will give good results,” he told a newspaper. “We do not see any fire that requires us to toss everything aside and meet to discuss Iran’s nuclear programme in the middle of a packed week at the United Nations General Assembly,” the ministry said in a statement. The United States wants to impose new sanctions against Iran, but Russia and China are resisting the move.