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Wide Range Condemnation of Israel's "Terrorist Attacks"
TEHRAN, Dec. 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi and the parliament lambasted Israel Tuesday for its airstrikes and ground assault on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran condemns the Israeli attacks which target Yasser Arafat," Kharazi told reporters at a joint press conference with his visiting Spanish counterpart, Joseph Pique. "These attacks demonstrate that, day to day, the situation deteriorates for the Palestinian people."
"The U.N. must play a more active role and adopt a new approach to press democratic principles," he added.
Meanwhile, Iranian parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karubi told a parliamentary session the raids on the West Bank and Gaza Strip were "a massacre without precedent of the Palestinians," reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Karubi warned that the Israeli government's ordering of airstrikes and branding the Palestinian Authority a terrorist entity would feed the "growing radicalization of opinion in the Middle East and that it risked being a catastrophe for humanity."
He blasted hard-line Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's televised speech Monday night, which compared Israel's campaign against the Palestinians to the U.S.-led "war on terror" in Afghanistan.
"If you truly want to battle against the terror, we must contain the Israeli government and establish a just peace in Palestine," Karubi said in an implicit swipe at the United States, Israel's closest ally, for not stopping the strikes.
The Iranian parliament accused Sharon of looking to "eliminate the signs of life in the occupied territories with a vast military attack." It called for "intervention from the international community and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the 57-member pan-Islamic organization.
"We condemn the Zionist regime for its repeated violations of all international resolutions and conventions, notably the attacks on Monday night," the 200-member parliament said.
Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique, in Iran on an official visit, condemned the Israeli air attacks on Gaza City, Iran's State Radio said Tuesday.
"Madrid condemns the Israeli raids on Gaza and thinks that the escalation does not benefit the region," said Pique. He added that Spain "was asking for the help of the international community to restore a lasting and stable peace in the Middle East," the IRNA news agency said.
In Dhaka, Bangladesh condemned Tuesday Israeli attacks on Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority and said the world's third largest Muslim country was "gravely concerned".
"We condemn the military action which threatened the movement of Palestine [Authority] President Yasser Arafat" and destroyed three of his personal helicopters, Foreign Secretary Shamser Mobin Chowdhury told reporters.
"Bangladesh is gravely concerned with the deadly acts of violence by the Israeli forces in Palestine during the past several days," he added, calling for "all parties to show utmost restraint in this situation and an immediate halt of hostility."
In the West Bank, Arafat accused Sharon Tuesday of trying to torpedo his crackdown on terrorism with a wave of airstrikes on Palestinian cities.
"He doesn't want me to succeed, and for this he is escalating his military activities against our towns, our cities, our establishments," the Palestinian leader told CNN television shortly after an Israeli missile exploded outside his West Bank headquarters.
Israel denied it had targeted him, despite the blast on a police post close to the building where he was working.
In Washington, a key broker in Middle East peace efforts, appeared not to object to Sharon's attacks Monday, claiming Israel had the right to defend itself and that Arafat must do more to arrest so-called "militants".
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, adopting the exact terminology used by Israeli government officials, said President George W. Bush "thinks it is very important that Palestinian jails not only have bars on the front but no longer have revolving doors at the back."
In Ramallah, Palestinian cabinet secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman said Tuesday that a wave of Israeli air strikes on Palestinian towns and cities were an attempt by Sharon to "destroy the peace process".
"Sharon wants to destroy the peace process and then to destroy everything else. He thinks that by targeting the Palestinian Authority and its leader Yasser Arafat he will solve the problem, but he is mistaken," he said, AFP reported.
In Amman, Jordanian newspapers on Tuesday condemned Israeli strikes on Palestinian targets, accusing Sharon of launching an "American-style" war on so-called "terrorism".
Pro-government and independent newspapers agreed, however, that dialogue is the only alternative to peace in the Middle East and criticized the United States for "encouraging" Sharon to order the strikes on Palestinian targets.
"Sharon returned from Washington to declare a war on 'terrorism' American-style," said the Jordanian independent daily,
Al-Arab Al-Yawm, referring to the Israeli prime minister's address to the nation after Monday's air strikes on the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
In Sanaa, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has called for international protection for the Palestinians after the latest Israeli military offensive in the West Bank and Gaza, the Yemeni news agency (SABA) said Tuesday.
"We must ensure international protection for the Palestinian people," Saleh said in telephone conversations overnight with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Emirati President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.
Saleh called for "coordination between Arab countries with regard to the serious situation" in the Palestinian territories, warning of the risk of a "destabilization of the region," SABA said.
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