November 1, 2001	Thursday	Shaba’an 14, 1422

JAKARTA, Oct 31: Iran’s foreign minister warned on Wednesday that Osama bin Laden will gain more public support if the US continues its bombardment of Afghanistan during the holy month of Ramazan.

“Ramazan is a holy month and continuation of the strikes would ... be counter-productive,” Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi told a press conference at the end of a one-day visit here.

“Those whom the US says are behind the September 11 attack would not only not be punished but would gain support in public opinion.”

It was “the demand of the Islamic world” that the military operation stop before Ramazan, which starts mid-November, Kharazi told reporters earlier.

Kharazi met his Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirayuda and the chairman of the national assembly, Amien Rais, to discuss what Islamic countries could do to combat terrorism outside of military action.

Iran considers the attacks on Afghanistan “unacceptable” and wants terrorism dealt with internationally under United Nations auspices, he told the press conference.

“Iran believes ... double standards should not be applied,” Kharazi added, accusing unspecified western nations of providing a haven for unnamed terrorist networks to develop.

“Iran itself is a victim of terrorism, many civilians and officials have been killed by terrorists. Those groups who come to Iran and assassinate people have been given a free hand in some western countries to organize, recruit and get money,” Kharazi said, without naming the groups or countries.

He called for cooperation among Islamic countries on finding a solution to terrorism to “avoid a clash between Islam and the western world, between Islamic and western civilizations”.

He said Indonesia held common views with Iran on tackling terrorism and on the attacks on Afghanistan.

“We believe in any military cooperation one cannot pursue terrorists and destroy them, there should be other ways.

“Through military operations civilians are harmed ... none of those whom the US has been searching for have been killed or hurt,” he said.

Wirayuda said Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, had conveyed to the US its disagreement with the way military strikes had been conducted.

“From the beginning ... we urged that this action should be limited ... to avoid civilian casualties.

“ We know now after one month there are increasing numbers of civilian casualties, people killed, houses destroyed ... so we have expressed to the US our disagreement with this action,” he said.

Wirayuda repeated his appeal to Washington to “please take into account that Ramazan is coming, Christmas also is coming”.

Kharazi called repeatedly for “the root causes of terrorism” to be tackled, citing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as an example.

If the rights of the Palestinian people were recognized and occupied territories handed back to them, the US would find its efforts to eradicate terrorism easier, he said.

Without addressing the root causes, Kharazi said, military efforts to combat terrorism would be unproductive and possibly counter- productive.

Kharazi said he and Wirayuda also discussed proposals for a future administration in Afghanistan, which he said must include all ethnic groups. —AFP