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Iran's Foreign Ministry Says Accusations Against President-Elect Are Sheer Lies

Posted on: Sunday, 3 July 2005, 09:00 CDT

Text of report in English by Iranian news agency IRNA web site

Tehran, 3 July: Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi here Sunday [3 July] termed the recent accusations made by certain countries against Iran's President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad as sheer lies, unfounded and baseless.

Some US embassy officials taken hostage after the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution have claimed Ahmadinezhad was one of their captors and interrogators, while the three leading Iranian hostage- takers, Abbas Abdi, Mohsen Mirdamadi and Hamid Reza Jala'ipour on Friday vehemently denied the reports on Ahmadinezhad's role in the 1979 US embassy siege.

Abdolhoseyn Ruholamini, also a hostage-taker, said the hostage- takers were the students from Tehran University, Sharif University of Technology, Polytechnic (Amir Kabir) University, and National (Shahid Beheshti) University and no student from University of Science and Technology was among the hostage-takers.

Ahmadinezhad was studying at the University of Science and Technology at that time.

Talking to domestic and foreign reporters, Asefi said the Zionist and US circles adopted a false approach towards Iran's presidential election even before the polling and sometimes such a false approach was intensified.

He called on the Europeans to move apart their interests from those of the Zionist regime and not to fall into Zionist media trap.

The Europeans should show political maturity towards such baseless allegations, he said urging them not to mix up their interests with those of the Zionist regime and the United States.

Asefi assessed the outcome of recent visit by Majlis (Parliament) Speaker to Belgium as successful and said the programmes were according to the schedule but "apparently we insist to turn successes into failures."

The Iranian delegation had the opportunity to announce its stand more transparently and hear the Europeans' stance, he added.

The spokesman said Haddad Adel's Belgium visit was coincided with creating an unfair atmosphere against Iran, adding that certain hands were involved to cancel the visit.

As to cancellation of Haddad Adel's meeting with the Belgian senate president, Anne-Marie Lizin, Asefi said Ms Lizin knew our principles well.

She cancelled the meeting on the pretext of Majlis speaker's refusal to shake hands with her, he said.

He noted that the Iranian delegation also rejected to attend a luncheon because it was supposed to be held in a European way.

"It was neither the first time nor will be the last. The issue is not of a prime importance," Asefi said.

In its recent visit to Brussels, the Iranian delegation, headed by Majlis speaker, refused to attend a luncheon hosted by Belgian officials because they would like to serve alcohol drinks.

Asked about the impact of such issues on Iran's nuclear dossier, Asefi said the Iranian delegation held constrictive meetings with senior Belgian officials, expressing hope such insignificant issues would play no role in the nuclear case.

Source: BBC Monitoring Newsfile

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