20 January 2005	Thursday	09 Zilhaj 1425

ISLAMABAD, Jan 19: The parliamentary leader of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) in the Senate, Prof. Khurshid Ahmed, has strongly condemned what he terms the threatening tone the US president has adopted against Iran.

He said any aggression against Iran be treated as an attack on the Ummah and called upon the governments of Muslim countries to protest against the American designs in the region.

In a statement here on Wednesday, Senator Khurshid Ahmed termed the report published in the New Yorker about infiltration of American special forces in Iran to destroy the Iranian nuclear establishment as 'the most alarming'. "The present US leadership was moving in a clandestine manner towards some kind of military intervention in Iran," Senator Ahmed warned.

He said defending the Iranian nuclear establishment would be part of defending Pakistani nuclear establishment because if America got 'a licence to destroy vital security assets of one country' it would pave the way for it to violate the sovereignty of other countries as well.

Mr Ahmed said it was imperative 'for our common defence' that the government of Pakistan and that of other Muslim countries protested against the American designs and used all means at their disposal to keep this region safe 'from American aggression'.