IRAN - Oct. 29 - Khatami In Spain Assails US Policy On Terrorism & Iraq.

During a 3-day official visit to Spain, Pres. Khatami says at a joint news conference with Spanish PM Jose Maria Aznar at Complutense University in Madrid: "Have the erroneous policies of the United States made Bin Laden more popular or more hated than before in various sectors of the Islamic World? Have the erroneous policies of the United States weakened Islamic trends that favour wisdom and democracy? The United States with its hegemony has strengthened Bin Laden, so we ought to condemn it in some way for supporting terrorism". Khatami even likens the logic of Bin Laden to that of US Pres. Bush. He says: "I hear a discourse from two poles. One is the voice raised from Afghanistan by Bin Laden that says, 'Whoever is not with us must be destroyed'. The other is the voice from the United States that says, 'Whoever is not with us is against us'". Khatami adds: "That is a logic which on one side leads to the most atrocious forms of terror and, on the other side, on the pretext of confronting terrorism, creates the worst type of atmosphere for waging war". On Iraq, Khatami notes that Saddam invaded Iran in 1980 and used chemical weapons against Iran during the 8-year border war that followed. Khatami says: "Of course the whole world knows we've suffered greatly at the hands of Iraq and the Iraqi regime". He suggests that there is a double standard in the extraordinary reaction against Saddam today, compared with the world's inaction when he turned chemical weapons against Iran and even against Iraqi civilians. Khatami says: "If chemical weapons are bad, why when they were used against us or Iraqi citizens wasn't Iraq condemned and pressured?" But Tehran is vehemently opposed to a unilateral US war against Baghdad and the installation of a government of Washington's choosing in Baghdad. Khatami says: "We have said several times that we are against any military attack on Iraq and any unilateral action in resolving international issues. To intervene in the internal affairs of a nation is a dangerous precedent". But Khatami calls on Iraq to comply with UN Security Council resolutions, and hints that Tehran will not object to the use of force against Iraq if the Security Council decides that it has not. "If in the international scene there needs to be further steps taken", he says, "we believe that there should be support from the United Nations and the international community for these steps". (Khatami, a midlevel theologian who studied philosophy, is the first Tehran leader to make an official visit to Spain since Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1965. He is using the occasion to press his campaign for the "dialogue among civilisations" that he introduced at the UN four years ago. On Oct. 29, he and Aznar signed bilateral accords on investment protection, tourism and customs issues).