Iran Rejects US Accusation of Link to al-Qaeda

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, March 21, 2002

Iran Rejects US Accusation of Link to al-Qaeda

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Iran on Wednesday rejected U.S. intelligence chief's claim that Tehran is possibly linked to the Afghan Taliban regime or al-Qaeda terror network alleged to be behind the September 11 terror attacks on the U.S., the official IRNA news agency reported.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said that " Iran's policy against Taliban and al-Qaeda, as during the time when America played a role in their creation and supported them and as of now, has been the same."

George Tenet, director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), said on Tuesday that "it would be a mistake to dismiss the possibility of state sponsorship, whether Iranian or Iraqi, of the September 11 hijacked airliner attacks on America."

Asefi said "It is America that practices double standards and easily changes its policies according to its daily interests."

The United States was trying "in vain" to cause chasm among political factions in Iran, he said, adding Iranians of all political persuasions will stand up against possible U.S. threats to the Islamic Republic.

"We will show in action, as we have done so in the past, that we have no difference in our approach toward American threats and protecting Iran's national interests," he said.

The United States and Iran have severed relations since 1980 after Iranian students stormed the American embassy in Tehran in 1979 and took its staff hostage for 444 days. Since then the two sides have imposed policies of hostility towards each other.

U.S. President George W. Bush, in his State of the Union address in January, has termed Iran, together with Iraq and the Democratic People Republic of Korea, as an "axis of evil," accusing it of attempting to develop weapons of mass destruction, providing assistance to al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives and destabilize the interim Afghan government.

The U.S. remarks have triggered strong condemnations from Iranian officials and people from all walks of life in recent period.

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