8
Wednesday, June 5, 2002
Iran prepared to
fight if attacked
Supreme leader denounces war on terror
Water testing
BEHESHT-E-ZAHRA, Iran (AP) —
Iran’s supreme leader accused the
United States on Tuesday of “mas
sacring” innocent Afghans during its
war on terrorism, and said Iran was
ready to fight if attacked.
Addressing thousands of people on
the 13th anniversary of the death of
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father
of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the United
States launched the war in Afghanistan
to get rid of Sept. 1 1 terror suspect
Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida
organization, but instead massacred
civilians.
“In Afghanistan, in the poor and
wronged country of Afghanistan, they
entered the arena under the guise of
combating a group or even a few indi
viduals. They did not get their hands on
those individuals, but they massacred
many innocent people, bombarded them,
killed them,” Khamenei said. “...This
imposition of violence or expression of
violence cannot help America achieve its
aims and succeed.”
In Washington, White House
spokesman Ari Fleischer said, “The
United States helped liberate the
Afghani people from repression.”
Fleischer noted that Iran played a
constructive role in the Bonn talks in
December that established the interim
Afghan administration and “we expect
them to play a constructive role now."
But amid chants of “Death to
America,” on Tuesday, Khamenei called
the United States “the most hated regime
in the world.”
Cars and buses carrying Iranians
from around the country jammed the
highway leading to the glittering, gold
en-domed shrine of Khomeini, where
Khamenei spoke.
Iran and the United States have had
no relations since the 1979 revolution,
when militants stormed the U.S.
Embassy in Tehran and held 52
Americans hostage for 444 days.
Khamenei, who has the final say on
all matters, has repeatedly ruled out talks
with Washington, despite calls by some
reformist lawmakers that the issue of
U.S.-Iran relations be decided in a refer
endum.
The United States accuses Tehran of
seeking nuclear, biological and chemical
weapons. President Bush has lumped
Iran together with Iraq and North
Korean in what he says is an “axis of
evil” threatening world peace.
Graduate civil engineering students, Aditya Raut
Desai, left, and Chunwoo Lee, right, take water sam
ples at Research Park. The samples, which test the
general nutrients, chemicals and toxins in the water,
are part of a preliminar experiment for Information
Technology in Science graduate program.
Pakistani president will not renounce nuclear weapon use
ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) —
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf refused Tuesday to renounce
first use of nuclear weapons, as efforts
to bring him together with his Indian
counterpart to defuse tensions over
Kashmir appeared to fail.
In New Delhi, a senior Indian gov
ernment official told The Associated
Press on Tuesday that India was paying
close attention to diplomatic pressure
being applied by Washington and other
capitals. The Americans had persuaded
India’s government to show restraint, at
least for now, the official said on condi
tion of anonymity.
Secretary of State Colin Powell
pledged “a full-court diplomatic press”
on the two nations.
“It would be absolutely horrible in
the year 2002 for any nation to use
nuclear weapons in a situation such as
this,” Powell said Tuesday while
attending an international conference
in Barbados.
Trying to keep diplomatic efforts
alive, Russian President Vladimir Putin
and other world leaders met separately
with Musharraf and Indian Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at an
Asian summit in Kazakhstan and,
according to Musharraf, invited them to
Moscow for possible talks. The discus
sions presumably would try to prevent
the conflict from exploding into a
fourth full-scale war between the
nuclear-armed neighbors.
Musharraf accepted the invitation,
but the timing of the proposed meeting
was vague, and the Kremlin said
Vajpayee was not invited. Putin will
visit India late this year.
Tuesday morning, the two leaders
angrily blamed each other for more
than five decades of conflict as they
sat across a table while their troops
fired at each other in the disputed
Kashmir region.
Musharraf, when asked to state
Pakistan’s nuclear policy and explain
why it will not renounce first use of
nuclear weapons as India has, said:
“The possession of nuclear weapon
by any state obviously implies they wi
be used under some circumstances
He said that it would be irrespoit
ble for a leader to discuss such thine:
and that Pakistan’s “deeper policy"
for denuclearization of South Asia.
India National Security Advise
Brajesh Misra responded, "Wewilln
be the first to use nuclear weapons
hope the enormity of the use ot nucleai!
weapons is understood by the presidw J
of Pakistan.”
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Arafat presents reform plan
to prevent more terror attacks
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RAMALLAH, West Bank
(AP) — Yasser Arafat, under
pressure from the United States
to do more to prevent terror
attacks on Israel, presented a
plan Tuesday for reforming his
unwieldy security services to
CIA chief George Tenet.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,
meanwhile, approved the con
struction of a fence between
Israel and the West Bank along
about one-third of the unmarked
frontier, the so-called Green
Line, to keep out Palestinian
militants, an adviser confirmed.
In the West Bank, Israeli
troops raided several Palestinian
areas in search of suspected
Palestinian militants. In one
confrontation, a 16-year-old
Palestinian was shot dead by
soldiers dispersing stone throw
ers, doctors said.
At Arafat’s headquarters in the
West Bank town of Ramallah,
two dozen Palestinians protested
Tuesday against the Tenet mis
sion, chanting “Tenet go home”
as the convoy of the CIA chief
drove into the compound. The
protesters said they opposed
United States involvement in
internal Palestinian affairs.
Tenet met with Arafat, and
then held separate talks with three
Palestinian security chiefs Jibril
Rajoub, Amin al-Hindi and
Mohammed Dahlan. Tenet left
Arafat’s headquarters after five
hours without speaking to
reporters.
Paul Patin, spokesman for the
U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, said
U.S. officials would judge the
Reforms that
have no substantial
change in strategy
and policy are
worthless.
— Raanan Gissin
Sharon adviser
reform efforts against results. “If
there is a cessation of terror,
then it’s good. If there’s not a
cessation of terror, it’s not
good,” Patin said.
Israel was skeptical.
“Reforms that have no substan
tial change in strategy and policy
are worthless,” said Raanan
Gissin, a Sharon adviser. Israi|
accuses Arafat of doing littlen
encouraging terror attacks, j By I<
The makeover of the secuti® T
services is part of a broadti
reform package sought by iH Desp
United States. Bnancia
The reform plan presented families
Tenet calls for cutting in half essentia
number of Palestinian secun services
services. After restructuring, the academ
would police, border guarc4&M l
internal security aind exten universi
security, military intelligence aft The,
Arafat’s personal guard unit. Fee, set
Arafat named Abdel Raz%iU inc
Yehiyeh, 73, a former negotiant) pei
with Israel and commander i students
the Palestinian Liberation AnftjA&M
as supervisor of the new secumSpring s
ty services, Palestinian official I he
said, speaking on condition ftcontint
anonymity. f osts J
Arafat, who has not y e j
announced Yehiyeh’s appoi |l!
ment publicly, would retain ove' :
all control over security matters
The choice of Yehiyeh s'* 1
seen as a snub of Dahlan,
of the Preventive Securii
Service in Gaza, who had hop
to be given that post. Dahlan r
close ties with U.S. officialsJU
is believed to have maintained J
back channel with Israel.
Offer subject to change.
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Gunmen open fire on school
bus near Myanmar border
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Three masked
gunmen opened fire on a Thai school bus near
its border with Myanmar on Tuesday, killing two
teenage students and wounding 15 others.
The attack threatened to deepen the enmity
between neighbors Thailand and Myanmar.
A senior Thai defense official said the shoot
ing in Ratchaburi province, about 12 miles from
Myanmar, was probably carried out by one of
Myanmar's ethnic minority guerrilla groups and
may have been intended to "create more misun
derstanding" between Thailand and Myanmar.
Relations between the Southeast Asian
neighbors have deteriorated since a shelling
incident last month along their 1,300-mile fron
tier, where fighting between Myanmar's govern
ment and rebels often spills over into Thailand.
Greenspan says economy
looks brighter, but still slow
MONTREAL (AP) - Federal Reserve Chairman
Alan Greenspan said Tuesday that America's eco
nomic prospects were looking brighter, but cau
tioned that economic growth in the coming
months will slow from the January-March pa ce -
"I suspect the American economy is i n a . n
upswing — it's not going to be a drarriaW
upswing ... but events look increasingly positive
^ • ■ ■ — during
Greenspan said in response to questions _
a panel discussion with other central bankers-
-r-1 . . ^ ... i fi
The U.S.
economy, which suffered its ^ rS |
recession in a decade last year, rebounded 3
an annual rate of 5.6 percent in this yearsfn' 5
quarter. But Greenspan, agreeing with the con
sensus of private forecasters, said that g 01 ^
forward, "We will not grow at the pace of t e
first quarter."
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