TEHRAN, Jan 11: Iran’s influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani called US President George W. Bush “rude and impudent” on Friday for warning Iran against harbouring Al-Qaeda fighters.

“The Americans, thinking they face no challenge, are becoming rude and impudent. The US president uses a rude and impudent tone to tell Iran to do this or that,” Rafsanjani, chief adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a prayer sermon.

“How does (Bush) dare speak to our nation in such a manner? Time and again you have tested our revolutionary people and learned that such threats have no effect,” he said.

Bush warned Iran on Thursday against harbouring members of the Al-Qaeda network who fled Afghanistan or destablising the new interim government in Kabul.

“Iran must be a contributor in the war against terror,” he said. “Either you’re with us or against us. And any nation that thwarts our ability to rout terror out where it exists will be held to account, one way or the other.”

The exchange threatens to revive a war of words between the two nations, which were arch-foes until the September 11 suicide attack on the United States.

Either out of sympathy or keen to avoid tension with the superpower, hardline leaders in Iran toned down their rhetoric against the United States after the Sept 11 attacks.

Washington, for its part, provided a more positive picture of Iran, anxious to secure Iranian support or acquiescence in its war in Afghanistan.

“We did not take your orders even when you enjoyed immense influence in Iran,” Rafsanjani said. “Our people humiliated and kicked out the Americans and their local lackies.”

Although no longer an elected official, Rafsanjani wields considerable power in Iran as the head of the Expediency Council, which sets major policy, and as Khamenei’s top adviser.

Once viewed as a moderate, Rafsanjani has taken a tougher line on foreign and domestic issues since stepping down and is a strong critic of reformers around President Mohammad Khatami.—Reuter