January 6, 2003	Monday	Ziqa’ad 2, 1423

TEHRAN, Jan 5: The United States’ aim of carrying out “regime change” will not stop in Baghdad, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said on Sunday, accusing Washington of seeking to ensure Israel’s regional dominance.

Quoted by the official news agency IRNA, Kharazi said the United States was “seriously preparing for a war against Iraq”.

“United States policy is not limited to Iraq, as the Americans want to change a number of regimes in the region so that Israel will be dominant,” the foreign minister said.

“Every country must try to prevent the United States from attacking, by resolving the Iraq problem by diplomatic means,” he added.

But Kharazi said he was confident the United States would not attack Iran, which US President George Bush has lumped into an “axis of evil” along with Iraq and North Korea.

“The United States will not attack Iran, because Iran is not Iraq and has not violated any international rules,” Kharazi asserted.

“The US is trying to strike blows against us and does constitute a threat for our country, but this does not mean they will attack us militarily.”

Iran is opposed to a US attack on Iraq despite loathing of President Saddam Hussein and Tehran’s support for Iraqi opposition groups.

IRAN’S SUPPORT: Mohsen Rezai, a top member of the Expediency Council — Iran’s top political arbitration body — hit out at Washington for failing to recognize Iran’s support during the war against the Taliban.

“The Americans understood that after Afghanistan, they had committed errors in their attitude to Iran. But that is not to say that after Iraq, they will not turn on Iran,” he was quoted as saying in local newspapers.

Iran played a key role in the ouster of the Taliban.—AFP