Bonni Network

Iran slams U.S, backs Europe role in Middle East

TEHRAN, Iran (Oct 25, 1996 12:49 p.m. EDT) - Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Friday blasted the United States as a "wolf in sheep's clothing" and said he welcomed an active role for Europe in the Middle East.

"The fact that Israel and the White House say only America (should mediate) has shown to the Arab world and Muslims that this mediator ... is a wolf in sheep's clothing," Rafsanjani said in a mass preyer sermon, broadcast on Tehran radio.

"We would see it as a positive development for Europe to play a role to prevent a power which has proven to be biased and unjust from monopolizing the scene and to allow weak nations to have a say," Rafsanjani told worshippers at Tehran University.

Rafsanjani was commenting on a tour of the region by French President Jacques Chirac, who has been seeking a peacemaking role for the European Union alongside the United States.

"Of course one should not be too optimistic about the Europeans' mediation because all of them have a policy of keeping this thing called Israel ... as a policeman to protect the interests of arrogance (West) and block the correct movements of Muslims and Arabs," Rafsanjani added.

Iran says Israel has no right to exist. Tehran has condemned the Middle East peace process, saying it would only lead to a sell-out of Palestinian and Arab rights.

Tehran has blasted U.S. policies in the region, saying Washington gives unconditional support to Israel against the Arabs.

The United States accuses Iran of supporting international terrorism and this year passed a law penalising firms that invest $40 million or more in Iran's gas and oil sectorsCease-Fire Holding in Northern Iraq 11:08 Oct 25, 1996

DEGALA, Iraq (Reuter) - Kurdish fighters pitched tents in the rain and children played with toy guns Friday after a U.S.-brokered cease-fire to end two months of clashes took hold throughout northern Iraq.

``There were some clashes until about nine o'clock last night but the cease-fire is now fully in position,'' Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) commander Roj Nuri Shuwayis told Reuters in the frontline town of Degala.

There were no reports of fighting from the rest of the mountainous region. The KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) had exchanged fire near Degala Thursday despite the cease-fire being called for the night before.

Delegations from the two sides are to meet in Turkey next week for peace talks chaired by senior U.S. diplomat Robert Pelletreau, the State Department said Thursday.

``Both will be represented at the table with him and with representatives of the governments of Turkey and the United Kingdom,'' State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said in Washington. Britain and Turkey, a NATO ally that borders Iraq, have helped bring the two factions together.

``This cease-fire is going on without any conditions. The conditions will be considered in the negotiations,'' Shuwayis said.

Jalal Talabani's PUK said it was committed to the truce brokered by Pelletreau this week.

``The PUK leadership is emphatic about its committments to maintaining the cease-fire to give...peace talks scheduled to begin next week every chance of success,'' it said in a statement.

Fighters on either side of the frontline pitched tents on Friday to shelter from the rain. The guerrillas, known as ``peshmergas'' (those who face death), normally sleep in the open air covered only by a blanket.

``We can relax for at least a week now,'' one KDP guerrilla said. Others gathered in small groups, chatting and smoking cigarettes.

In other areas, ragged children toting wooden guns played on the streets, stopping vehicles at ``checkpoints'' -- imitating the Kurdish guerrillas whose real checkpopints were common during the recent spate of fighitng.

Suicide bomber kills four in Turk police attack 11:08 Oct 25, 1996

ISTANBUL, Oct 25 (Reuter) - Four people, including three policemen, died in a suicide bomb attack by a woman assailant on a riot police headquarters in the southern Turkish town of Adana on Friday, the state-run Anatolian news agency said.

The attacker was blown to pieces in the explosion, Anatolian said. It gave no further details.

In July, a young woman from the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) killed nine Turkish soldiers when she rushed into a military parade in the eastern town of Tunceli and let off a bomb hidden under her clothes.

It was the first suicide attack of the PKK's 12-year fight for independence or autonomy in the mainly Kurdish southeast but a few months before PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan had threatened a wave of such bombings.

Although Adana is not in the area where the PKK is fighting, it is crowded with Kurds who have fled the southeast. More than 20,000 people have been killed in fighting between Turkish troops and the PKK