09 October 2004	Saturday	23 Shaban 1425

TEHRAN, Oct 8: Iran's influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Friday criticised the international condemnation of the deadly anti-Israeli bombings in Egypt that he said were acts of retaliation.

"How come there is no noise about the shedding of Palestinian blood but a retaliatory act is expected to be condemned so much?" Rafsanjani asked during the Juma prayers in Tehran.

"In Taba some angry people blew up a place they believed Israelis were staying. It is not known yet who has taken revenge ... and now all countries are lining up to condemn it in the media," he said.

Rafsanjani hit out at the world's silence over the deadly Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where more than 90 Palestinians have been killed in an army offensive since September 28.

"We oppose terrorism, we have suffered from that more than any other country but we do not accept that one side commit as much crime as it wishes and the other side be all submissive and have its hands tied," he said. -AFP