01/14/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09644

BUSH ON IRAN AND AFGHANISTAN

President George W. Bush has warned Iran not to take any actions that could destabilize Afghanistan’s interim government. The warning came in response to reports that Iran might be giving safe haven to some Taleban and al-Qaida terrorists fleeing Afghanistan.

President Bush said the United States would hope that Iran "wouldn’t allow al-Qaida murderers to hide in their country. We would hope that. . .if someone tries to flee into Iran, that they would hand them over to us."

Mr. Bush said the U.S. "would like to work with the Iranians, as well as other neighboring countries, to. . .stabilize the interim [Afghan] government." He said that if the Iranians, "in any way, shape, or form," try to destabilize the [Afghan] government, the U.S. will "deal with them, in diplomatic ways, initially. And we would like very much," said Mr. Bush, for the Iranians "to be active participants in a stable Afghanistan. It’s to their advantage, by the way, that Afghanistan be stable."

The U.S. is also concerned about Iran’s support for terrorists elsewhere in the world, especially in the Middle East. For years, the U.S. has listed Iran as the world’s most active state supporter of international terrorists. Earlier this month, the State Department pointed out that Iran continues to provide the terrorist groups Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command with varying amounts of funding, safe haven, training, and weapons.

Israel recently seized a ship headed for Palestinian-administered territory and loaded with fifty tons of weapons, including explosives, mortars, and Katyusha rockets. These are the kinds of weapons that have been used by Palestinian terrorists to such deadly effect against Israeli civilians. And as State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, there is "credible information that indicates the arms were Iranian in origin."

In the war against terrorism, as President Bush made clear, "either you are with us or against us. And any nation that thwarts our ability to rout terror out where it exists will be held to account, one way or the other."