Rafsanjani lashes out at Iran's critics in Iraq

IranMania News: "Rafsanjani lashes out at Iran's critics in Iraq

Saturday, December 25, 2004 - ©2004 IranMania.com

LONDON, Christmas Day (IranMania) - During the weekly Friday Prayers ceremony in Tehran, former Iranian President Hashemi Rafanjani lashed out at the "stupid accusations of Iranian interference made by certain mercenaries of the United States".

He was referring to Iraq's interim government who regularly accuse Iran of destablizing the country, "Such propaganda is strange coming from people who themselves were designated by the Americans".

Last week, Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi called on Iraqis to turn out and vote in the scheduled January 30 elections. "We want Shiites, Sunnis, Christians, Turkmens and all the other communities of Iraq to take part in the elections." said Kharazi.

Wanting to qualify the statement, Rafasanjani said, "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."

This is while on Friday Sunni Muslim clerics slammed next month's landmark general elections in Iraq as a "masquerade" and renewed a call for the ballot to be postponed.

In what have been billed as Iraq's first free elections in half a century, Sunnis who have dominated the political elite since the 1920s, fear that their power will be curtailed by the long-suppressed majority Shiite Muslims."