Brussels, 26/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - The rounds of the European Union Troika aimed at explaining the stance of the Fifteen and rallying the countries visited around a coalition against terrorism continued with Teheran on Wednesday where Iranian Foreign minister Kamal Kharazzi declared that retaliation by the United States was justified, on condition that the attacks of 11 September were formally identified. "Article 51 of the United Nations provides countries aggressed with the right to respond with attacks against aggressor countries but the country has to be clearly identified", declared Karmal Kharazzi at the end of his meeting with Javier Solana, Chris Patten, Louis Michel ad Josep Pique. Iran, moreover, ruled out any participation in any retaliation against Afghanistan.
For now, the debate on international co-operation against terrorism and Teheran's support for groups such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas is not over. "It is clear that the first response to the awful actions of 11 September is to find those responsible. When one comes to defining what a terrorist group is, the debate is bound to be animated, and already took place this morning", declared Commissioner Patten, quoted by Reuters. For their part, the Iranian authorities placed emphasis on the fact that "the fight of the Palestinian people for its rights is a whole other ball game" than the 11 September attacks.
The Troika was to move on to Saudi Arabia Wednesday afternoon before meeting the Egyptian President and Secretary General of the Arab League in Cairo on Thursday, and moving on to Damascus on Friday, before making a stop-ver in Skopje.
Strong Israeli reaction to Jack Straw's word on terrorism
The visit by the Troika followed on the one by British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who, for his part, went to Israel Tuesday afternoon, where he was almost reused a meeting with the President and Prime Minister due to statements he made in an Iranian newspaper, stating that "one of the factors that help ferment terrorism is the anger that many people in the region feel due to the events in Palestine for years now". After the Israeli authorities had cancelled the meetings scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, Jack Straw, who was still to go to Palestine and Egypt, was finally received by Ariel Sharon on Wednesday. "there is no difference between terrorism and terrorism (…) any act of terrorism is a horrible act", declared the Israeli Prime Minister, as he had already told Hubert Vedrine on Monday.