Malaysian: U.S. scheming on Iran, Syria
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP)-- Malaysia's former prime minister accused the U.S. Thursday of scheming to invade Iran and Syria, and said the Iranian president's recent statements against Israel are providing Washington the excuse.
On Monday, Iran's hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the Nazi Holocaust a "myth" used as a pretext for carving out a Jewish state in the heart of the Muslim world. Ahmadinejad earlier provoked an outcry in October when he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's former longtime leader, himself raised an international outcry when shortly before leaving office last year he said in an Oct. 16 speech that "Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."
Opening a three-day global peace forum in Kuala Lumpur, Mahathir charged that the U.S. Congress has "prepared legal authority for aggression against other countries" through laws allowing it to meddle into other nations' affairs using democracy as a pretext.
The Iran Freedom and Support Act of 2005 carries a subtle threat of war and "sounds like blackmail," he said. He noted that when introduced in the House, the official title was "to hold the current regime in Iran accountable for its threatening behavior and to support a transition to democracy in Iran."
"Democracy, human rights, possession of WMD (weapons of mass destruction) are convenient excuses for war and killing," said Mahathir, who has described the U.S. as a "mass murderer" for its invasion of Iraq.
He said Ahmadinejad's call to wipe out Israel from the map of the world has provided "additional grounds for aggression" for Washington.
Ahmadinejad's comments came amid U.S.-backed negotiations between Iran and Europe seeking a compromise on Tehran's nuclear program. Washington says Iran secretly aims to build nuclear warheads but Iran insists its nuclear intentions are peaceful, aiming only to produce electricity, and has refused to give up key parts of the program.
Mahathir warned of a possible nuclear war as superpowers have already built huge arsenals of nuclear weapons.
"The warlike nations are not going to stop warring," he said. "One day, one of them may press the button and ... then we would have a full-scale nuclear war destroying the whole world and its inhabitants."
"We must act to stop this madness, these killings ... what kind of a civilization would we have with mass murderers as world leaders?"
On Monday, Iran's hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the Nazi Holocaust a "myth" used as a pretext for carving out a Jewish state in the heart of the Muslim world. Ahmadinejad earlier provoked an outcry in October when he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's former longtime leader, himself raised an international outcry when shortly before leaving office last year he said in an Oct. 16 speech that "Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."
Opening a three-day global peace forum in Kuala Lumpur, Mahathir charged that the U.S. Congress has "prepared legal authority for aggression against other countries" through laws allowing it to meddle into other nations' affairs using democracy as a pretext.
The Iran Freedom and Support Act of 2005 carries a subtle threat of war and "sounds like blackmail," he said. He noted that when introduced in the House, the official title was "to hold the current regime in Iran accountable for its threatening behavior and to support a transition to democracy in Iran."
"Democracy, human rights, possession of WMD (weapons of mass destruction) are convenient excuses for war and killing," said Mahathir, who has described the U.S. as a "mass murderer" for its invasion of Iraq.
He said Ahmadinejad's call to wipe out Israel from the map of the world has provided "additional grounds for aggression" for Washington.
Ahmadinejad's comments came amid U.S.-backed negotiations between Iran and Europe seeking a compromise on Tehran's nuclear program. Washington says Iran secretly aims to build nuclear warheads but Iran insists its nuclear intentions are peaceful, aiming only to produce electricity, and has refused to give up key parts of the program.
Mahathir warned of a possible nuclear war as superpowers have already built huge arsenals of nuclear weapons.
"The warlike nations are not going to stop warring," he said. "One day, one of them may press the button and ... then we would have a full-scale nuclear war destroying the whole world and its inhabitants."
"We must act to stop this madness, these killings ... what kind of a civilization would we have with mass murderers as world leaders?"
posted by Marko at 12/15/2005 10:30:00 AM
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