[iwar] [fc:Iranian.President.Says.U.S..Leaders.'Misused'.Sept..11]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-08-14 06:50:39
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2002 06:50:39 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Iranian.President.Says.U.S..Leaders.'Misused'.Sept..11]
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New York Times
August 14, 2002
Iranian President Says U.S. Leaders 'Misused' Sept. 11
By John F. Burns
KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 13 - President Mohammad Khatami of Iran struck out
at President Bush and other senior American officials at a news conference
here today, saying they had "misused" the Sept. 11 attacks on the United
States "to create an atmosphere of violence and war" across the world that
could sow the seeds for still more destruction.
Mr. Khatami's visit to Afghanistan, Iran's eastern neighbor, was the first
in 40 years by an Iranian head of state. He warned that American leaders, in
widening their campaign against terrorism, could unleash a chain reaction
that would engulf countries other than the intended targets in a new round
of violence. He implied, without saying so explicitly, that the United
States itself could be among the victims.
"The events of Sept. 11 were horrific, but the American leaders misused
them, too," Mr. Khatami told reporters gathered in the old royal palace here
in the Afghan capital after talks with President Hamid Karzai. The attackers
"did it because they wanted to create an atmosphere of violence and war in
the world, but we know with certainty that in today's world all our fates
are linked."
"Those who plan to launch this war shouldn't think that the effects will be
felt only where they attack," he continued. "To believe that you can make
people submit by force is wrong. We know that this approach only brings
anger and destruction."
Although Mr. Khatami mentioned no country as a possible target of an
American attack, he appeared to be referring to Mr. Bush's vow to overthrow
President Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Although Iran fought an eight-year war
with Iraq in the 1980's that cost the two nations at least a million
casualties, Iran opposes an American war in Iraq.
The Iranian leader's remarks had the effect of turning a visit intended to
focus on Iran's backing for Mr. Karzai's new government into a forum for
airing Iran's bitter differences with the the United States, the Karzai
government's indispensable ally. Mr. Karzai, seated beside Mr. Khatami at
the news conference, remained studiously neutral, saying Afghanistan sought
good relations with both Iran and the United States.
American relations with Iran had seemed to be thawing slightly over the last
several years with the hope that the moderate Mr. Khatami would prevail over
old guard conservatives. But Mr. Bush's inclusion of Iran in an "axis of
evil" in his State of the Union address in January has seemed to buoy the
conservatives, and has brought bitter responses from Mr. Khatami as well.
With his visit today, Mr. Khatami appeared eager, though, to throw Iran's
weight behind the Karzai government, and to counter allegations by American
officials that Iran has been compounding Afghanistan's instability with
narrowly targeted policies aimed at promoting Iran's regional interests.
In particular, officials in Washington have suggested that Iran has sought
to carve out an area of influence on Afghanistan's western border by
favoring a western warlord, Ismail Khan, over the Kabul government, and by
giving sanctuary to members of Al Qaeda who fled to Iran after the collapse
of the Taliban.
Mr. Khatami today cited Iran's recent action in handing over 16 Qaeda
suspects to Saudi Arabia. Far from giving sanctuary to Qaeda fugitives, he
said, Iran had followed a consistent policy of denying the use of its
territory to terrorist groups of all kinds.
"We have huge borders, but if we have any suspicions that people crossing
them might belong to Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups, we immediately send
them to their countries of origin," he said.
But in Washington today, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, asked
about Mr. Khatami's visit, said: "They are permitting Al Qaeda to be present
in their country today, and it may very well be that they, for whatever
reason, have turned over some people to other countries. But they've not
turned any to us."
The political crosscurrents in Kabul today were particularly striking for
the fact that American Special Forces soldiers cradling automatic rifles,
with American flags stitched to their baseball caps and shirt-sleeves,
controlled security throughout a day of engagements for Mr. Khatami.
When he berated the United States in what was once the Afghan king's
audience chamber, Mr. Khatami was only about 20 feet away from a stone-faced
American bodyguard, with at least a dozen more outside. But the Americans
appeared to be trying to remain just far enough away to deny news
photographers a shot of Iran's leader under the protection of heavily armed
Americans.
To the chagrin of many Afghans who considered the move an affront to
national dignity, the American bodyguards assumed responsibility for Mr.
Karzai's protection last month after the assassination of one of his closest
political allies, Hajji Abdul Qadir. Almost six weeks later, Afghan
investigators say they still have no clues as to the identity or motive of
the two gunmen.
Afghans have two main theories - that Mr. Qadir was a victim of local feuds
in Jalalabad, his eastern political base, where competing warlords have
become entangled in rivalries over the area's rich traffic in opium and
heroin; or that he was the target of a conspiracy hatched within the Karzai
government itself. Deep divisions between Tajiks and Pashtuns, the country's
two main ethnic groups, have seriously undermined the new government.
By taking over Mr. Karzai's security, the United States showed how crucial
it considers his survival is to hopes that the government will strengthen
its shaky credibility and extend its authority into hinterland areas
controlled by recalcitrant warlords. As a Pashtun, like Mr. Qadir, Mr.
Karzai is outweighed politically in the government by Tajiks. They became
America's main allies in the fight against the Taliban after Sept. 11.
Mr. Karzai saw to it today that Mr. Khan, who controls the region around the
city of Herat, was a prominent member of his entourage for the talks, a move
intended to signal a new loyalty by Mr. Kahn to the Kabul government. Mr.
Khatami referred repeatedly at the news conference to Iran's firm backing
for "the central government" and noted that a $550 million Iranian aid
package would be managed through the Kabul government - and not, as some in
the Karzai government had feared, as a local arrangement with Mr. Khan.
Western diplomats monitoring the visit said Iran's commitment to back the
Karzai government, together with Pakistan's similar pledge, was a major plus
for the new administration as it wrestles with internal challenges to its
authority. With support from these countries that flank Afghanistan to the
east and west, as well as from the former Soviet Central Asian republics to
the north, the diplomats said, the Kabul government has been relieved, at
least for now, of the strains that regional power politics placed on past
Afghan governments, including the Taliban.
Despite his warnings to the United States, Mr. Khatami seemed eager to
emphasize that Iran and the United States had found a common interest in
Afghanistan, both in the overthrow of the Taliban and in the effort to help
the new government onto its feet. The Taliban and Al Qaeda, he said, had
posed major problems for Iran, not least in their "completely different"
views of Islam.
After Sept. 11, he said, Iran had offered its full support to the
American-led military campaign, including some steps known only to Iranian
and American officials that had made the end of Taliban rule "much easier"
than it might otherwise have been.
But the Iranian leader's remarks were spiked throughout with a strong sense
of resentment against the Bush administration. He made a pointed reference
to conciliatory steps by President Clinton's administration, which American
officials said at the time were aimed at strengthening Mr. Khatami's hand in
the internal power struggle.
This "way of dealing with matters was more logical, and closer to the
world's interest," he said, than the hostility toward Iran that emerged as
Washington defined its policy after Sept. 11.
Under the Bush administration, Mr. Khatami said, an "arrogance" about
American power had taken over that clouded Washington's judgment about its
own interests. But Iran remained hopeful, he said, that "America will put
aside this arrogance, and see the realities as they are."
"We still hope to see changes in the policies of the United States," he
added, "that will serve the interests of its own people, and of the world." 

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