US 'Regime Change' Will Not Stop in Baghdad: Iranian FM

January 5, 2003

TEHRAN, Jan 5 (AFP) - The United States' aim of carrying out "regime change" will not stop in Baghdad, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said, accusing Washington of seeking to assure Israel's regional dominance.

Quoted by IRNA Sunday, Kharrazi said the United States was "seriously preparing for a war against Iraq".

"United States policy is not limited to Iraq, as the Americans want to change a number of regimes in the region so that Israel will be dominant," the foreign minister said, without saying which governments were next on Washington's list.

"Every country must try to prevent the United States from attacking, by resolving the Iraq problem by diplomatic means," he added.

But Kharrazi said he was confident the United States would not attack Iran, which US President George W. Bush has lumped into an "axis of evil" along with Iraq and North Korea.

"The United States will not attack Iran, because Iran is not Iraq and has not violated any international rules," Kharazi asserted.

"The US is trying to strike blows against us and does constitute a threat for our country, but this does not mean they will attack us militarily."

Officially, Iran is opposed to a US attack on Iraq despite national loathing of its President Saddam Hussein and Tehran's support for Iraqi opposition groups. The two neighbours fought a 1980-1988 war.

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