Iran condemns 'stupid' accusations of interference in Iraq

Iran condemns 'stupid' accusations of interference in Iraq: "Iran condemns 'stupid' accusations of interference in Iraq
AFP: 12/24/2004
TEHRAN, Dec 24 (AFP) - Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani lashed out Friday at what he called "stupid" accusations of Iranian meddling in Iraq coming from "mercenaries" working for the United States.

He denied that Iran's repeated calls for a high turnout in the Iraqi elections next month amounted to interference in its neighbour's affairs.

"The Iraqis know full well that nobody in Iran is telling them where, how or for whom to vote. But we call on everyone, everywhere in the world, to go and vote to take their own destiny in their hands," he said.

"To accuse us of interference because we are encouraging people to go and vote, that is political propaganda," Rafsanjani, who remains influential in the Islamic republic, said in a sermon at the Muslim weekly Friday prayers.

"Such propaganda is strange coming from people who themselves were designated by the Americans," he said, referring to figures in the interim government in Baghdad who have accused Tehran of working to destabilise Iraq.

Rafsanjani rejected "stupid accusations of Iranian interference made by certain mercenaries of the United States", in a speech which was carried live on state radio.

On Thursday, Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi called on all of Iraq's ethnic and religious groups to cast their votes in the January 30 elections, warning that calls for sectarian boycotts were a recipe for civil war.

"We want Shiites, Sunnis, Christians, Turkmens and all the other communities of Iraq to take part in the elections," said Kharazi, whose country largely shares the faith of Iraq's long oppressed Shiite majority.

"All these communities must have their place" in the new Iraq, he said."