Iran’s permanent envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency has criticized the approach taken by certain nations in countering terrorism.
"The unsuccessful experience of major powers in their superficial, improper and biased approach to combating terrorism has been ineffective in decreasing terrorist threats," said Ali Asghar Soltanieh.
"Worse of all are the attempts made to associate terrorism with a certain religion and culture," he added.
Soltanieh made the remarks Thursday in the Austrian capital Vienna during a conference for the United Nations Global Counter Terrorism Strategy.
He also touched on terrorist groups such as the anti-Iranian Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) operating under the patronage of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
The MKO were also supported by several western countries while launching their terrorist attacks inside and outside of Iran.
"These double standards are at odds with the UN resolutions. The best way to ensure we are on the right path is to take all the measures to combat terrorism in the UN paradigm," Soltanieh said.
"Countering terrorism must be based on rules and respecting human rights. Acts such as secret arrests of terrorist suspects and sending them to clandestine prisons is against humanitarian rights,” he continued.
Soltanieh said fighting terrorism demands a multidirectional approach based mainly on confronting the roots of terrorism.
"Foreign occupation, isolation along with double standards and the political and economic policies of certain hegemonic powers, merely fuel violence and terrorism," he said, reiterating such issues must be dealt with at a fundamental level.
Elsewhere in his remarks Soltanieh described "state terrorism" as simply another form of the overall phenomenon of terrorist, and called it "a menace to joint measures in countering terrorism."
"The international community should prevent the bombardment of residential areas and the massacre of innocent people including children under the pretext of fighting terrorism," he reiterated.
Press TV – 18/05/2007
