By Steven Edwards
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations is defending its support for an “anti-terrorism” conference in Iran at which the “wicked” policies of Western powers were assailed and the United States was accused of manufacturing the Holocaust and the 9/11 attacks as pretexts to suppress Muslims.
Iranian media trumpeted the fact Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, had “appreciated” Iran’s effort, saying he had said through an envoy that “holding conferences like the Tehran Conference can be considerably helpful in implementing” UN resolutions aimed at combatting terrorism.
Participants at the International Conference of the Global Fight Against Terrorism also accused the United States, Britain and Israel of fomenting terrorism.
“If we’re reaching out and trying to make sure that people fight terrorism, we need to go as far as possible to make sure that everyone does it,” said Farhan Haq, a spokesman for the secretary general.
“We don’t have to agree with all the statements.”
He denied Mr. Ban had explicitly endorsed the conference’s outcomes.
U.S. and other Western intelligence services have long said Iran is a state sponsor of Hamas and Hezbollah, which the United States, Canada and others consider to be terrorist entities.
Citing the “wicked policy” of the United States and Britain, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian Supreme Leader, opened the conference with an apparent call for terror attacks on those countries as he said in a statement it was “a duty for all Muslims to confront and fight this inauspicious offspring.”
He was followed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President, who claimed Washington manufactured the Holocaust and the 9/11 attacks as pretexts to put down Muslims and to benefit economically from the resulting panic.
The conference’s website featured cartoons, including one showing a bloody fingerprint depicted as a U.S. flag and the Statue of Liberty holding a stick of dynamite.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/06/28/un-backs-irans-anti-western-anti-terrorism-conference/
