Tehran, September 06: Following negative US remarks about Iran’s new defense minister, the Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman deplored Washington’s stance.
“This attitude shows the US does not believe in democracy in other countries,” Hassan Qashqavi said Sunday.
After Iran’s Majlis gave an overwhelming vote of confidence to Ahmad Vahidi as the new defense minister, the State Department’s PJ Crowley asserted that Iran has taken a “step backward” in putting an end to its international isolation.
“Rather than taking a step forward to engage” the world, “Iran today is taking a step backward by putting into a high office a well-known individual suspected of participation in a terrorist act,” he claimed.
Qashqavi touched upon the Iranian lawmakers’ high votes for Vahidi, emphasizing that “It indicated the US policies on Iran are isolated and groundless among the Iranian nation.”
“We lament US position in this case, and we think Washington had better not fall into the deceptive trap of global Zionism which spearheads terrorism,” he said referring to Israel.
“Instead of respect for Iran’s democratic and official stance and the choice of its lawmakers, the US has resorted to accusations … that have no legal and judicial basis,” added the spokesman.
On Thursday, Iranian lawmakers gave the highest number votes of confidence to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s defense minister-designate who has been a target of an Interpol ‘red notice’ for his arrest since 2007 over the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish Community Center that reportedly left 85 dead and 300 wounded.
An Interpol ‘red notice’ is not an international arrest warrant, but an indication that the individual is wanted by national jurisdictions. The agency’s role is to assist national police in identifying or locating such persons.
Qashqavi said Iran expects the US government to refrain from repeating the mistakes of its previous administrations.
“Such positions will not help settle the US woes in the Middle East but will stir more hatred of the nation towards the new US government,” he said.
Although the investigation in the 1990s did identify some suspects but no one was ever convicted for the attack. However, in October 2006 Argentine prosecutors decided to issue warrants for the arrest of several Iranians by the Interpol, accusing Tehran of masterminding the bombing, and the Hezbollah movement of carrying it out.
Iran has strongly denied the allegations, saying Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor of the case, had received huge sums of money from Jewish lobby groups in Argentina for accusing Tehran of the bombing.
—–Agencies