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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran President Urges Afghan War Probe |
| 2010-04-14 |
| [Quqnoos] Iran's President called on UN chief Ban Ki-moon to set up an inquiry into the aims of Western military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq A letter charged that US and NATO methods of dealing with terrorism in the region had failed and said it was up to Ban, as UN Secretary-General, to launch a probe whose results would be presented to the 192-nation UN General Assembly. Nearly 120,000 foreign troops have been stationed in Afghanistan to fight Taliban forces. President Obama has approved to send an additional 30,000 troops on the ground as reinforcement. Ahmadinejad said that as a result of the Western presence "a few million people" had been killed, wounded or displaced, illicit opium poppy cultivation had increased "and the peoples of our region continue to live under the shadow of threat." "We have emphasized time and again that settlement of problems in our region does not need wide-scale military expeditions or actions," said Ahmadinejad, whose country borders Afghanistan to the east and Iraq to the west. "Excellency, you are at least expected to appoint an independent fact-finding team which is trusted by the countries of the region, to launch a comprehensive investigation into the main intentions of NATO military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, the methods used, and the outcome of their presence and engagement," he told Ban. Iranian media reports quoted Ahmadinejad's letter as also calling for an investigation into the Sept 11 attacks on the United States, saying they had been used as a pretext for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. |
| Posted by:Fred |