OSLO, Dec 9: Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner, implicitly criticised the United States on Tuesday, the eve of her prize-giving ceremony, warning that attempts to introduce democracy through military means were “futile.”

Ebadi said she opposed resorting to military force to enforce democracy, in response to a question on how the international community should pressure Iran to open up to democratic freedom and human rights.

“Democracy should not be used to attack other countries, to launch military attacks against other countries,” Ebadi said, suggesting that she did not want to see a repetition in Iran of the US-led war on Iraq.

“Any kind of military assault is futile and it’s null and void,” she said. “The realization of democracy is a national and patriotic duty of ours,” she said.

While the 2003 Peace Prize laureate, who was speaking at a press conference at the Nobel Institute in Oslo, did not specifically mention the United States, Washington is generally viewed as Iran’s biggest antagonist.

The US counts Iran as one of the three countries in the so-called axis of evil, along with Iraq and North Korea.

US President George W. Bush has accused Tehran of producing weapons of mass destruction, of supporting international terrorism and interfering in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Ebadi, 56, was honoured by the Nobel committee for her democracy-building efforts and her work to improve human rights in Iran.

Opposed to all armed conflicts, Ebadi instead called for international public opinion and the United Nations to pressure Iran to reform.

“If innocent people are killed in the name of Islam, that’s wrong,” she said when asked what she thought of a regime that supports stonings.—AFP