- TEHRAN (AFP) - Donald Rumsfeld
will take to hell his idea of regime change in Iran, former president Ali
Akbar Rafsanjani charged after the US defense secretary predicted an early
overthrow of the Islamic regime by its own people.
-
- "This minister (Rumsfeld) will take to hell his
dream of seeing regime change" in Iran, Rafsanjani told thousands
of faithful during Friday prayers in Tehran.
-
- The crowd responded with "death to America, death
to Israel!".
-
- Rafsanjani, head of the powerful conservative-dominated
Expediency Council, which arbitrates disputes over legislation, accused
US leaders of wanting to undermine the 1979 Islamic revolution.
-
- "But they have not yet understood the nature of
our revolution and the links that unite the people to the clergy,"
he said.
-
- Rafsanjani, a senior cleric, also issued a warning to
the "very small minority inside the country whose eyes are turned
towards the United States," saying they could only express themselves
because of the "leniency" of the regime.
-
- He added that the US administration was "duped"
by the strength of this minority.
-
- Rumsfeld said on a radio talkshow Wednesday he believed
the regime in Iran would tumble from within, in response to a question
asking whether Washington planned to move on to Iran after toppling President
Saddam Hussein in neighboring Iraq.
-
- "I suspect that during my lifetime we're going to
see a change in that situation over there and that the young people and
the women and the people who believe in freedom will overthrow that cleric
government and it will fall in some way of its own weight," Rumsfeld,
70, added.
-
- The defense secretary called Iran "an interesting
place" controlled by "a very small clique of clerics," and
insisted the "women and the young people don't agree with how it's
being run."
-
- His statement appeared to signal that the administration
saw no need to resort to overt or covert military measures to topple the
regime in Tehran, which US President George W. Bush said in a speech in
January formed part of an "axis of evil" along with Iraq and
North Korea.
-
- Iranian officials have been expressing heightened concern
that their country will be sandwiched between US troops in Afghanistan
and Iraq, if Washington decides to overthrow Saddam by force.
-
- Defense Minister Rear-Admiral Ali Shamkhani aired these
worries on Wednesday, when he warned Iranians to be prepared for the possibility
of a US attack.
-
- "The US government wants to reorganize the region
and as a consequence Iran could constitute a target," Shamkhani said.
"If the Americans are in both Afghanistan and Iraq, this represents
a significant challenge."
|
