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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Bush Puts Pressure On Iran Over Dahran Attack |
| 2006-06-29 |
| Washington, 29 June (AKI) - Ten years after the attack on Dhahran, in Saudi Arabia, the White House has once again blamed the death of 19 US soldiers and the injuries reported by 370 civilians on Iran. US president George W. Bush has issued a statement saying that those responsible for the attack will be brought to justice. On June 1996, a bomb exploded in the northern Saudi city of Dhahran in an attack targeting the housing complex of Khober, in which US military personnel lived. The White House of then president Bill Clinton blamed the attack on Iran. However no evidence was ever provided to either confirm or deny the role of the Islamic Republic as the mastermind. In the 1990s Iran was also accused of having played a role in two attacks in Argentina, one on the Israeli embassy in March 1992 and another against Amia, a Jewish association in Buenos Aires in July 1994. In September 1992, a commando killed in Berlin's Mykonos restaurant, the leader of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) and three of his dinner companions. On that occasion, German officials successfully identified the killers and arrested them. A court in Berlin subsequently ruled that then Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and his intelligence minister Ali Fallahian were the masterminds of the murder. Investigations on the two attacks in Argentina and on the explosion in Saudi Arabia are still ongoing. With the election of Mohammad Khatami in June 1997, the United States and Europe eased pressure on Iran, hoping that the new reformist president would help shed light on the terror attacks in Argentina and Saudi Arabia. However, ever since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stepped into power after presidential elections in June 2005, the White House has once again started to openly accuse the Iranian government of being behind the terrorist attack in Dhahran. According to Ahmad Zeidabadi, an analyst and a BBC contributor, Bush is using the case to put pressure on Ahmadinejad so he will accept a proposal by world powers to halt Iran's nuclear programme, which the West fears is aimed at building nuclear weapons. "The recent statements of George Bush on Iran's role in the Dhahran attack sends a very clear message," says Zeidabadi. "The Americans are warning Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that if he doesn't accept the proposal of the six world powers, old cases implicating the Islamic Republic in terrorist acts will be re-opened." On 6 June, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, China, Russia, Britain and France - plus Germany proposed to Iran a package of incentives to stop uranium enrichment activities. Tehran has not responded yet and Ahmadinejad said the government will probably reply by mid-August. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #1 "...the government will probably reply by mid-August." Make that November 6, 2006! |
| Posted by: smn 2006-06-29 17:37 |