[Mb-civic] Rumsfield on Iran

[Michael Butler]

This story was printed from channelnewsasia.com

 

Title
 :
 Iran fuelling Iraqi insurgency with people and money: Rumsfeld

 By
 :


 Date
 :
 08 September 2004 1648 hrs (SST)

 URL
 :
 http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/105559/1/.html



 WASHINGTON : US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in an interview Iran
was fuelling the insurgency in Iraq with people and money, but that
international will was lacking to press Tehran to stop its meddling.

 "They have put people in there. They have put money in there," Rumsfeld
told The Washington Times.

 "By 'they,' I'm not going to say which element of the government or whether
it's even known to the government. But money has come in from Iran. People
have come in from Iran. And it's a very difficult thing to stop," he said.

 "Iran is a country that is not part of the civilized world in terms of its
behavior."

 When asked if Iran was funding radical Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr,
Rumself said, "There's a lot of speculation to that effect."

 Rumsfeld said the United States found it difficult to convince other
countries to pressure Teheran to stay out of Iraq.

 "The problem of proliferation and the problem of terror and the problem of
dealing with a country that's separated itself from the civilized community
is that those are the kind of things that require the cooperation of a lot
of countries," he said.

 "And when you have countries of the world that are not willing to
participate in an organized effort to try to persuade a country to behave in
a civilized way, it encourages them simply to continue on its merry way. And
that's a problem," Rumsfeld said.

 Hours before the US death toll in Iraq surpassed 1,000, Rumsfeld on Tuesday
told a press conference that the people of Iraq and Afghanistan were better
off today than a year ago, but to expect more attacks on US forces to
intensify as elections it gets closer to elections in both countries.

 "It's a tough, difficult business," Rumsfeld said. "On the other hand, the
people of Iraq today and Afghanistan are so much better off today than they
were a year ago, in every conceivable respect."

 He also emphasized the world faced a global struggle against Muslim
extremism, pointing to the bloody hostage-taking at a Russian school that
left hundreds dead, many of them children.

 "There are really no free passes in this struggle, this war. There are no
free passes for countries. There are really no free passes for individuals,"
Rumsfeld said.

 "And for that reason the civilized world has to stay on the offensive. And
that's exactly what the coalition is doing," he said. - AFP







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