Mottaki: West fuels violence in Middle East

Source: Presstv.ir, 11-10-2008
The Iranian Foreign Minister has said that external elements are the source of a rise in violence and insecurity in the Middle East region.
"The ones who carried the placard of security, democracy and claimed to lead an anti drug-campaign while entering the region, have themselves been sources of the increase of violence and insecurity," Manouchehr Mottaki told IRNA news agency at the end of his visit to Islamabad.
Mottaki added that the international community has been witness to a decrease in security indicators and an increase in the number of suicide attacks and bombings during the seven years that foreign forces have been present in the region.
"This is the only objective result of the presence of the ultra-regional powers in the region," Mottaki said.
On October 7 2001, the United States and the United Kingdom launched an operation in Afghanistan in response to the September 11 attacks in New York. The invasion marked the start of the so-called War on Terror, the declared purpose of which was to capture Osama bin Laden, destroy al-Qaeda and eradicate the Taliban regime.
After seven years, US-led coalition forces tacitly admit they are far from victory in Afghanistan. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said the US would support peace talks with the Taliban, and the spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Brigadier General Richard Blanchette, has said there can be no military solution.
Since 2001, thousands of Afghan civilians have been killed in various acts of terror, and many thousands more have been displaced. The number of civilian deaths in Afghanistan has worried the international community.
Mottaki said that the Western strategists thought that intensifying extremism in this region would not result in insecurity in the West, but they are totally wrong.
"Terrorism does not know any boundaries," Iranian Foreign Minister concluded.
During his one-day visit to Pakistan, Iranian Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki discussed various bilateral and regional political and economic issues with Pakistani officials, including the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project.