[eDebate] israel staged arms boat capture

[jack stroube]

Iran Says Israel Staged
Arms Boat Capture
The News - Pakistan
2-28-2

BERLIN - Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi has told a German newspaper 
that Israel staged the capture of a boatload of arms for Palestinian 
fighters in order to put pressure on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Kharazi, currently visiting Germany, said in a Die Welt interview to be 
published onThursday that Israel had "itself staged" the capture of the 
Karine A on January 3 "in order to have a means of putting pressure on 
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat".

The entire arms affair was a "constructed story", he said, adding: "The 
Israelis are well versed in that." The Karine A was captured in the Red Sea 
by a special Israeli commando unit with 50 tonnes of arms aboard, including 
Katyusha rockets, destined for delivery to the Palestinian territories.

Kharazi described US President George W. Bush's remark about Iraq, Iran and 
North Korea constituting an "axis of evil" as an "insult to the Iranian 
people". He said the choice of words was the pretext for a "new US doctrine" 
based upon "unilateralism and a uni-polar world" and that it should also 
give the Europeans food for thought.

The minister repeated his denunciation of US "unilateralism" to journalists 
just before talks Wednesday with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. 
"If you want to fight terrorism you have to do it in the United Nations, 
under international cooperation," he said.

Kharazi and his host were expected to discuss the situations in Afghanistan 
and the Middle East, German officials said. Regarding the Saudi initiative 
proposing land-for-peace in the Middle East, Kharazi told Die Welt it was 
"nothing new" but that interest in such proposals showed "the despair in the 
region".

Kharazi on Tuesday met the president of the German parliament, Wolfgang 
Thierse, whose Iranian counterpart Mehdi Karubi is to visit Germany on March 
6. The Kharazi visit was sharply criticised by the opposition National 
Resistance Council of Iran.

The "clerical terroristic dictatorship" in Tehran has been repeatedly 
condemned for human rights violations and was "one of the states most active 
in encouraging international terrorism", the council said in a statement. 
The minister's visit "means nothing other than praise for the executioners 
reigning in Iran"

The News International, Pakistan 
http://jang.com.pk/thenews/feb2002-daily/28-02-2002/world/w7.htm



_________________________________________________________________
MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: 
http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx