Afghanistan News November 9, 2004

November 9, 2004

UN worker kidnapped in Afghanistan calls friend
08 Nov 2004 19:24:09 GMT
KABUL, Nov 8 (Reuters) - One of three U.N. workers held hostage by a Taliban splinter group in Afghanistan telephoned a friend in her home town in Kosovo on Monday and said she is well and not being badly treated, a relative said.

Shqipe Hebibi spoke to a female friend in her hometown of Pec who passed a message on to her brother, said the relative, who did not want to be identified.

"She said only a few words," the relative said. "She said: 'I feel very well, nobody has treated me badly and I hope to see you soon.'"

Hebibi, who helped run Afghanistan's presidential election last month, was abducted in Kabul on Oct. 28 along with fellow U.N. workers Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayan and Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland.

The Taliban splinter group Jaish-e Muslimeen (Army of Muslims), which says it is holding the three, has demanded the release of 26 Taliban members, some of whom could be in U.S. military custody, as part of a deal for their release.

Taliban Sought by Afghan Kidnappers May Be in Cuba
Monday, November 08, 2004 By David Brunnstrom
KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Some of the 26 Taliban members Afghan militants have demanded freed as part of a deal to release three kidnapped U.N. workers could be in the U.S. military jail at Guantanamo Bay, a militant spokesman said on Monday.

A Taliban splinter faction said it held negotiations through intermediaries with U.N. and government officials at the weekend and it was willing to "soften" other demands for the release of the three if their comrades were freed.

Mullah Sabir Momin, one of several men claiming to speak for the Jaish-e Muslimeen (Army of Muslims), said 16 of the 26 Taliban members had been arrested a few weeks ago in southern Afghanistan and could still in detention there.

"Ten others are old prisoners who could be in Cuba or Bagram," he said referring to the U.S. detention centers at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and at the main U.S. base in Afghanistan.

Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayan, Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland and Kosovan Shqipe Hebibi, who had helped run Afghanistan's presidential elections, were abducted in Kabul on Oct. 28. The Taliban denounced the poll, won by U.S.-backed incumbent Hamid Karzai, as a U.S.-orchestrated sham.

The government and the United Nations have declined to comment on the negotiations, but Defense Ministry spokesman Zaher Azimi said on Sunday he was hopeful the three would be released.

Momin said his group had given up its demand that U.S.-led foreign troops leave Afghanistan, but the kidnappers had three other demands. He would not reveal these as "the government told us not to announce those."

DEADLINES PASS
The kidnappers have threatened to kill the hostages unless their demands, which have also included the suspension of U.N. Afghan operations, were met, but several deadlines have passed.

They say the health of the three has deteriorated due to the cold and poor diet.

Another militant spokesman, Sayed Khalid Agha, said the group had agreed to a government request for two days to locate the 26 prisoners and had given until Tuesday. "Then the second round of negotiations will start," he said.

The demand for the release of prisoners from Guantanamo Bay could be a significant hurdle given the U.S. policy of not cutting such deals, but the Afghan government has in the past negotiated the release of several foreigners kidnapped by the Taliban, some by paying ransoms.

A spokesman for the U.S. military, Major Scott Nelson, said he did not know if it had been asked to free prisoners, but was "very hopeful" the hostage crisis could be resolved.

"We have many efforts, many organizations assisting the U.N and the interior ministry in the safe release of the hostages," he said. "I think there is some hope there."

The fate of the hostages is expected to be discussed by British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon, who is due to visit British troops in Kabul and to meet Karzai on Monday evening.

A Swiss-based Kosovan businessman who said he is a cousin of Hebibi made a televised appeal for her release on Saturday, saying she was a Muslim who came to help Afghanistan.

Behgjet Pacolli told Reuters he understood Hebibi was being held apart from the other hostages, not far from Kabul. He said he had had a sign she was alive and hoped for her release soon.

The abductions have raised fears among the 2,000-strong Western community in Afghanistan that militants have begun copying tactics of insurgents in Iraq.

4 Afghans ready to replace UN hostages
KABUL, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Four Afghan nationals have expressed their readiness to replace the three UN abductees as hostages in abid to secure the foreigners' safe release, a state-run Kabul-based daily reported Monday.

"Hafizullah, Rahmatullah Kosar, Abdul Majid Arif and Ghousudin Frotan in an open letter to hostage takers Jaishul-e-Muslimeen urged the group to release the hostages and instead keep them in custody ," official daily newspaper Hiwad reported.

The Afghan men, giving their contact numbers have termed the hostage taking as a violation of Islam and Afghan tradition and asked the abductors to keep them in their custody instead of the three "guests" until their demands are met.

"Kidnapping guests is a stigma to Afghan nation which breaches the Afghan traditional hospitality and by offering this proposal we want to remove it," Hafizullah, 28, told Xinhua.

By profession a journalist, he condemned the kidnapping as an inhumane and anti-Islamic principal act.

He also disclosed that Jaishul-e-Muslimeen has given heed to their proposal.

"Jaishul-e-Muslimeen already contacted us and is likely to directly talk to us today," he added in talks with Xinhua.

The other three Afghans who volunteered to replace the foreign hostages are freelancing journalists, aged between 25 to 28 years old. Telephone calls to them were not responding.

Jaishul-e-Muslimeen or the army of Muslims, claiming responsibility for the trio's abduction occurred 11 days ago, haslinked their release to the release of Taliban fighters, being held at the US prisons in Bagram and Guantanamo Bay.

The group which has been in talks with Afghan and UN authorities and extended the dateline for the third time Saturday reportedly submitted a list of 26 Taliban leaders for the exchange besides renewing the threat to execute the hostages if their demands were not met.

Afghan government and the United Nations in conjunction with the US military and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have been desperately working for the last 10 days tosecure the safe and early release of the abductees.

US military to strengthen efforts securing UN hostages' release in Afghanistan
KABUL, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The US-led coalition in Afghanistan would spare no efforts to assist Afghan government and the United Nations in efforts to release the three abducted world body's employees, US military spokesman said Monday.

"I would tell you that we stand ready to assist the United Nations, we stand by the government of Afghanistan for any efforts they ask. We are ready to assist and we continue to assist and support the Ministry of Interior in any operation," Scott Nelson told newsmen here Monday.

The three, including two European ladies and a male Filipino diplomat were snatched in broad daylight 11 days ago from the Afghan capital hugely patrolled by the US-dominated coalition and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). However, Nelson avoided commenting on the modalities of support or operations by saying "it is a sensitive issue. I think for the coalition is better to remain silent for now."

Jaishul-e-Muslimeen or army of Muslims, a splinter group from the outsted Taliban regime and claiming responsibility for the incident has linked the release of the hostages to the release of Taliban operatives from the US detention centers at Bagram and Guantanamo Bay.

The group reportedly in its talks with the Afghan and UN authorities has provided a list of 26 Taliban figures in exchange of the hostages. Nevertheless, the US army spokesman declined to make any comment on the abductors' demand.

The abductors, who extended the dateline for the third time Saturday, warned to execute the hostages if their demands were not met. "We have many efforts and many organizations assisting UN and the Ministry of Interior to assure the safe release of the hostages so we are hopeful for their safe release," the spokesman emphasized.

KARZAI GOALS FOR AFGHANISTAN
Voice of America (VOA News) / November 8, 2004
The following is an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government:

Newly-elected Afghan President Hamid Karzai says he hopes to establish a multi-ethnic government to deal with the problems caused by three decades of Soviet occupation, civil war, and Taleban oppression. Mr. Karzai says his goals include improving Afghanistan's economy, ending corruption, and reducing illegal drug trafficking:

"The greatest achievement of Afghanistan, of the Afghan people, has been the remarkable smoothness with which the political process went forward, that the political process delivered everything on time, and that the Afghan people participated fully in the political process."

The United Nations-Afghan joint electoral commission recently declared Mr. Karzai the winner of the October 9th presidential election in Afghanistan. Mr. Karzai won more than fifty-five percent of an estimated eight-million votes. More than forty percent of the voters were women. Remnants of the Islamic extremist Taleban regime had threatened to disrupt the election. They did not succeed.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher says the U.S. congratulates Mr. Karzai "on his election as Afghanistan's first democratically elected leader":

"The election is the latest milestone on the Afghan people's road to democratic government and a vibrant civil society."

One voter, a Kabul widow named Nuzko, said, "I am so old, so this vote is not just for me. It is for my grandchildren." Nuzko stressed that she wants "Afghanistan to be secure and peaceful."

Next year, the people of Afghanistan will take another major step when they return to the polls to select members of a national parliament and local government officials. State Department spokesman Boucher says the U.S. "will continue to support them as they work towards this bright future."

Too early to estimate damages by earthquake in Afghanistan: official
KABUL, Nov 8, 2004 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- It was still too early to estimate potential casualties or damages brought about by an earthquake that struck the war-ravaged Afghanistan late Monday, an official said.

The Interior Ministry of the transitional government has not received any report regarding the latest earthquake, and it was premature to make a judgment about the possible loss, a government source told Xinhua via phone minutes after the tremor jolted the capital.

It was not known where the earthquake took place and how many people were affected, the official said.

Police and several other sources were not available to make a comment on the development.

'I Didn't Come Here to Be a Flower Pot' - U.S. Ambassador
Lailuma Sadid, Pajhwok News Agency
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, gave an exclusive interview to 'Pajhwok News Agency'. He discussed his role in the reconstruction effort and the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan's future.

KABUL, Nov.7 (IPS) - Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, gave an exclusive interview to 'Pajhwok News Agency'. He discussed his role in the reconstruction effort and the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan's future.

Pajhwok: How do you feel about being Afghan and representing the U.S. What kind of conflicts do you face with this duality and will you stay here after your post is completed?

Khalilzad: I'm happy that after 35 years of being away from Afghanistan, I could come back here and help the country toward progress and success. I was born in Afghanistan, my father is buried here, my mother lives here, and I studied here. I haven't decided what to do after I finish this job. I don't see a problem being Afghan and now a U.S. ambassador. But some, because of this, expect more from me. I feel the weight of this on my shoulders and I try my best on both sides.

Pajhwok: What do you and President Karzai talk about when you get together? Most Afghans think that you're actually the president of Afghanistan and he's a figurehead. What is your answer to the Afghan people?

Khalilzad: Mr. Karzai is now the chosen president of Afghanistan. I want to help the Afghan administration and if there's a problem that I can help solve with the Afghan government, its various ministries and organisations, we will help. The goal is so that Afghanistan will not need our help, but while there is a need, we will be there.

Pajhwok: What kind of help have you provided? For example, it has been said that there has been a lot of meddling and you have rejected this idea. But in very sensitive moments, you have met with different leaders, such as (Mohammad) Mohaqiq, (Abdul Rashid) Dostum, Ismail Khan, and details of those meetings have not been public. This is a good opportunity for us to ask: what was said in those meetings?

Khalilzad: About the discussions you mentioned, it depended on the time, and sometimes we talked about security and disarmament and reconstruction and other issues that were important to the success of Afghanistan. But all the talks we've had were with the consultation of the Afghan government.

I didn't come here to be a flower pot. Our goal is to make sure problems are solved and I will not sit still if I see a problem. If that means that I personally or as a representative of the U.S. -- we will do what is necessary.

Pajhwok: The issue is the coalition government that Karzai does not want to have again. That could cause security problems if the militia commanders are not given a role in the new government. How much help can the U.S. offer to maintain security?

Khalilzad: We haven't discussed this yet. I went away for a few weeks. Karzai says he does not want to have a coalition, and the future government is up to them. He needs to come through with this promise and that doesn't mean that only one ethnicity will be a part of that government. There's a need for a government that has national participation, including men and women, a government that will get the job done and one that has little corruption. The problems of the Taliban, war-lordism, narcotics and economics are important but the type of government and the way it works is also important.

Pajhwok: How much can the United States government offer in military help if the militia commanders are ousted?

Khalilzad: The time of militia commanders is passing, war-lordism is dying out, and the spinal cord of war-lordism is being broken down. A successful Afghanistan is in need of one national army, law, government and economy. Some of the warlords are paying attention to these structures, in order to take part in the reform process. This work is not done yet; it will take time, but the future is bright.

There were questions that the United States was supporting war-lordism, but we've made it clear in the last year what politics we stand for. There shouldn't be any questions. Afghanistan is a region of strategic and military importance for the U.S. and so is its success.

Pajhwok: The U.S. has removed some (North) American intelligence forces from Herat, Kandahar and Mazar and taken out surveillance planes and sent them to Iraq. Has the attention of the U.S. people shifted toward Iraq and away from Afghanistan, or is there no need in Afghanistan for these forces?

Khalilzad: I don't know what you mean by these issues you've mentioned. Generally saying that attention is more toward Iraq, and less toward Afghanistan, is wrong. Before getting involved in Iraq, the U.S. was helping Afghanistan, and is still doing so afterwards. I was personally involved in speeding up the process and getting 1.4 million U.S. dollars added to the original budget. The number of soldiers has increased compared to the first couple of years of U.S. involvement here. If it is the reconstruction activities concerning security and economics, and even political issues, U.S. activities have increased. The United States can move forward in both countries, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Pajhwok: What about the U.S. report that was supposed to be published months ago on prisoners under United States control in Afghanistan? When is it actually being published? Human Rights Watch has commented on this issue.

Khalilzad: It's complete, but it has to be broadcast. It has to be. I will talk to those responsible in the military to find out. (END)

--Inter Press Service News Agency

Bulgarian rose plants to replace poppies in Afghanistan: report
SOFIA, Nov 8 (AFP) - Farmers in the southeastern Afghan province of Ningharhar are to turn from opium production to instead produce rose oil, a key component of perfume, by planting 40,000 Bulgarian rose plants, a report said here Monday.

Over a hundred farmers have agreed to turn away from the cultivation of illicit poppy plants, which bear the raw ingredient for heroin, to plant their fields with roses instead, Sega newspaper said. The oil-giving rose plants were brought from Bulgaria by the German non-governmental organization Agro Action and the United Nations Develepment Programme (UNDP), it said.

A total of 40,000 rose bushes, covering 10 hectares, are to be planted this fall in Ningharhar with 90,000 more to be planted in the spring of 2005, Bulgarian Ambassador in Kabul Krassimir Tulechki told Sega.

'The Afghan government offered to jointly implement a rose oil production project with Bulgaria. Bulgaria is to provide Afghanistan with both rose implantations and know-how,' Tulechki said. Bulgaria is a top producer of rose-oil, a component of French and other perfumes.

Rose oil production plummeted here after the fall of communism in 1989 but has begun to recover. A hectare of rose bushes can yield up to 800 grammes of rose oil a year, which after distillation costs around 4,000 euros while a hectare of poppy plants can produce up to 50 kilograms of raw opium which can be sold for up to 10,000 euros.

Despite an Afghan government ban on poppy cultivation, Afhganistan remains the world's leading supplier of illicit opium, morphine and heroin. This year opium crops are expected to jump by 40 percent, according a US State Department estimate released in September.

Armitage arrives in Pakistan to discuss terrorism, Afghanistan, Iraq
Monday November 8, 11:21 PM AP
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage arrived here Monday for talks with Pakistani leaders on terrorism, Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Islamabad's peace efforts with longtime rival India, U.S. and Pakistani officials said.

American officials hold regular consultations with leaders of Pakistan, designated by the United States as a major "non-NATO ally" for its cooperation in the U.S. fight against terrorism.

During his two-day visit, Armitage will meet President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, a U.S. embassy spokesman told The Associated Press.

He gave no other details. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said the talks will focus mainly on Afghanistan, Iraq and other areas of the Middle East. They will also include discussions on recent moves by Pakistan and India to improve relations, he said.

Armitage's visit, his second this year, comes a day after Ryan Crocker, the new U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, arrived to take up his post.

"Pakistan and the United States have worked very hard in the past few years to strengthen their bilateral relations in all fields, particularly in economic and commercial spheres as well as in the field of defense," Khan told a news briefing in Islamabad. "We would like to consolidate these relations."

He said "for both Pakistan and United States, the most important thing is to lay foundation for a long-term relationship."

"The most important thing is that we should have a stable, durable and longer lasting relationship between Pakistan and the United States," he said.

Despite strong opposition from radical Islamic groups at home, Musharraf allied Pakistan with the U.S.-led campaign that ousted the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan in 2001.

Since then, Pakistan has deployed thousands of troops in its tribal regions bordering Afghanistan to track down Taliban and al-Qaida remnants who are believed to be hiding there.

Pakistani security forces have also arrested more than 500 al-Qaida suspects, including several senior figures, following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

Minister of Culture takes Islamic stance
By Abdul Qadir Munsef
KABUL, Nov. 07, (Pajhwak Afghan News) – Afghanistan's minister of Information and Culture, Sayed Makhdom Raheen, has criticized the state television and cable services for broadcasting too many Bollywood Indian movies and Western films. He called on media outlets to air pure Afghan and Islamic cultural movies rather than what he called "vain misleading things."

"It's not only TV and radio that does this, all the wire services, starting from our own TV (the state-run TV) to the cable networks are annoying and misleading people," Raheen told Pajhwak Afghan News.

He said the programs broadcast, does not reflect the cultural values of Afghanistan. He stressed the media outlets should instead concentrate on presenting educational and entertainment programs.

Mr. Raheen said the newly established cable TV and radio, has given him rise to come to this criticism.

However, analysts say Raheen, previously, a staunch supporter of airing western style programs, in the country, has chosen this rather politically sensitive time to voice his preference to have more Afghan events on television and radio. They believe his comments are politically fuelled.

"I think Mr. Raheen is beginning to feel that there is no room for him in the next cabinet – with this in mind, he is calling for harmonization of the media programs with national and Islamic interests," said Mohammad Sediq Pusarlai, an Afghan political expert based in Kabul.

Pusarlai, said he was shocked to hear this new Islamic morale stance on national culture.

"Mr. Raheen, was up until yesterday supporting an article published in the, political weekly news magazine, Aftab, that was considered 'blasphemous' by Afghan clerics." He was reported to have praised the article on grounds that Afghanistan has the, "rights to freedom of the press."

Last year, the political weekly, published an article entitled, 'Holy Fascism'. The author was later charged for blasphemy by the Supreme Court of Afghanistan.

Mohammad Hasan Wulasmal, the editor of the monthly periodical, Afghan Journal, said Raheen's recent call for respect to Islamic values in the press is an attempt to attract popularity among the public.

- Pajhwok (http://www.pajhwak.com/) is founded by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR).

Kabul suicide bomber revealed
By Safia Milad
KABUL, Nov. 08, (Pajhwok Afghan News) – Afghan intelligence officials in the capital, Kabul, have revealed the name of the suicide bomber who detonated himself and killed two people, in a popular commercial street in the center of the city on the 23rd of October.

Interior Ministry sources have identified the bomber as Mati Ullah, from Shamshatu, an Afghan refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan. He was affiliated with the militant group Hezb-e-Islami, led by former Mujahideen leader Maulavi Younus Khalis.

It is a splinter group from the Hezb-e-Islami, led by another government opponent, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Mati had later developed relations with the Taliban, according to intelligence sources, who said that he had suffered mental illness caused by his experiences in the civil war in Afghanistan.

Afghan security officials who found the remains of the bearded suicide bomber in the city's Chicken Street said that he had strapped grenades to himself. He detonated the bombs, killing himself, Jamie Michalsky, an American interpreter and former US army reservist, and Fariba, an Afghan girl who sold books on the street. Three Icelandic peacekeepers, members of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), were injured in the attack.

Chicken Street, in the heart of Kabul, is a well-known attraction for foreign visitors, full of carpet and souvenir shops.

- Pajhwok (http://www.pajhwak.com/) is founded by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR).

Tehran tells Afghans to go home
By Frances Harrison BBC News, Tehran Monday, 8 November, 2004, 15:12 GMT
Tehran has removed free education for Afghan refugees
Senior officials in Tehran have publicly called on Afghan refugees to return to their country.
It is the first time the Iranian government has been so forthright about its policy on repatriation.

There are more than a million Afghan refugees in Iran and they have been given 16 months to go home.

Tehran is said to have been encouraging their departure by withdrawing access to free services.

'Time to go home'

Ahmad Hosseini, Director General of the Bureau of Foreign Immigrants, told the BBC repatriation was top of the government's agenda.

He said Afghans who had fled to Iran were no longer refugees because their country was secure and had a new government.

Tehran has made clear that those remaining in Iran would have to pay for their own living costs and would no longer receive subsidised services.

Mr Hosseini denied that requiring Afghans to pay school fees for the first time this year was a way of pressurising them to leave.

He said it was merely a restriction, and that education was just one of the free services that would be withdrawn from Afghan refugees.

Afghans, he said, should understand that this was not the time to study, but to go home.

Mr Hosseini said given that the UNHCR had withdrawn its funding for Afghan refugees in Iran, it should not get involved.

Iran has made clear its repatriation policy to international aid workers in private but has only now begun discussing it in public.

Osama Has Been in Pakistan For Three Years
By Arnaud de Borchgrave South Asia Tribune 11/6/04
WASHINGTON, November 5: With his latest video sally, Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted terrorist, has repositioned himself as the only leader willing to confront the world's sole superpower. Bin Laden has been hiding in Pakistan for almost three years, evidently with high-ranking protection.

Standing at a desk in a white turban and gold-colored ceremonial cloak, his message was clear: Not on the run but sharing the limelight with President Bush and his challenger John Kerry and hard at work as leader of disenfranchised Arabs and other Muslims seeking Palestine's liberation and the downfall of the authoritarian regimes of the Middle East and absolute monarchies and emirates of the Gulf.

Yasser Arafat's passing from the world stage also leaves a revolutionary vacancy. Thus, bin Laden's latest peroration is designed to outflank Muslim moderates who failed to obtain a change in Washington's pro-Israeli, benign neglect of the Palestinian crisis for the duration of the Iraqi crisis.

Bin Laden now knows that certain countless millions of Muslims, surveyed by the Pew Foundation two years in a row, trust him more than George W. Bush. In Muslim countries with a combined population of 450 million, bin Laden was a clear winner as a "freedom fighter" over the US president. In Morocco and Jordan, two traditionally pro-Western countries, at least at the regime-to-regime level, Mr. Bush was trusted by fewer than 10 percent in either country.

Bin Laden also scored majorities among the 6 million, mostly poverty-stricken, North Africans living in slums on the outskirts of France's major cities. Similar paeans echoed among 1 million South Asians in the greater London region.

Pakistani denials notwithstanding, Osama bin Laden has been in Pakistan since Dec. 9, 2001, when he escaped from the Tora Bora mountain range. Countrywide, bin Laden feels secure with 66 percent of Pakistanis, which moves up to plus 80 percent in the Northwest Frontier Province and Baluchistan, the two provinces bordering Afghanistan and governed by bin Laden admirers who consider Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar a personal friend.

This reporter and a multilingual UPI team, tipped by a major tribal leader about bin Laden's progress as he exited the Tora Bora mountain range through the Tirah Valley, arrived at the location Dec. 11, 2001. Local villagers confirmed that bin Laden, on horseback, accompanied by some 50 fighters, had come out of the Tirah Valley two days before. They were close to a main road that led from Pakistan's FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) to Peshawar, capital of the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP). Bin Laden left in the direction of Peshawar in an SUV with darkened windows.

On either side of the road from Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, to the Afghan border, there are large adobe-walled compounds of landowners and important tribal leaders. Osama bin Laden would be safe in any one of scores of such compounds.

Taliban's top leaders own similar estates where they live with impunity. Chaman, the Pakistani border town, is also home to a new crop of Taliban leaders. Some Pakistani journalists have the satellite phone numbers of Taliban's intelligence chief and other officials who feed them exaggerated or imagined tidbits about exploits against US forces on the other side of the mountains.

Bin Laden could be sheltered in any of Pakistan's major cities. The sprawling port of Karachi on the Arabian Sea, surrounded by miles of slums, has some 15 million people. In Peshawar, a city of 3.5 million, many Pathans, like bin Laden, are over six feet tall. In FATA, rickety local buses display posters of bin Laden captioned "Freedom Fighter." Bin Laden also enjoys the protection of renegade members of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI).

Before Operation Enduring Freedom crushed the Taliban regime in November 2001, some 1,500 ISI operatives ensured the security of Mullah Omar's rule. They maintained permanent liaison with bin Laden and his top lieutenants as he moved around a score of terrorist training camps and safe houses in Kandahar and Jalalabad.

Conventional wisdom among the Al-Qaeda watchers in Pakistan says President Pervez Musharraf's regime is reluctant to launch a countrywide crackdown to find bin Laden. If bin Laden were captured, dead or alive, Mr. Musharraf would feel obligated to turn him over to the United States. And Pakistan might then face a disinterested US administration and lose billions in aid.

Mr. Musharraf has said at different times he knew bin Laden was dead, then that he was alive but ill. Today, he concedes bin Laden may be in a mountain hideout where fiercely loyal local tribesmen would not betray him for the $25 million offered by the US.

Three months before the release of the September 11 Commission report, commission chief of staff Phil Zelikow asked a prominent Pakistani if he could "fill in the gaps about what was happening behind the scenes in Pakistan in the period immediately preceding the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington." He traveled the length and breadth of Pakistan working his sources, which included many former ranking government officials, retired senior officers and former ISI personnel.
The requested report arrived in Washington too late to be included in the commission's 567-page report, which mentioned Pakistan 311 times. Even if it had arrived in time, it probably would have been left out. The material turned over to Mr. Zelikow, a former member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (2001-2003), could prove even more embarrassing to Mr. Musharraf than the information supplied by US intelligence about the international nuclear black market arms bazaar that was run for the benefit of America's enemies (North Korea, Iran and Libya).

The godfather of Operation Proliferation was Dr. AQ Khan, father of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, and a charter member of the country's pantheon of national heroes.
The unpublished addendum to the September 11 report said: (1) Former senior ISI officers knew about the September 11 plot before the attacks occurred. (2) Osama bin Laden has not left Pakistan since he escaped from Tora Bora. (3) Bin Laden was treated for renal problems at a military hospital near Peshawar.
Mr. Musharraf will, of course, deny all this. Though he was army chief before his military coup in October 1999 gave him absolute power, Mr. Musharraf told the United States he knew nothing about AQ Khan's activities. This stretched credulity to the breaking point. He pardoned Mr. Khan and allowed him to keep his ill-gotten nuclear fortune. Future denials about bin Laden will ring as hollow. The writer is Editor at Large for United Press International and for The Washington Times.

Pak-Afghan relations
Editorial – The News Int. (Pak) 11/7/04
President General Pervez Musharraf has said that Pakistan and Afghanistan will fight terrorism together and ‘fight it out offensively’. He said that the success of fighting terrorism in Afghanistan is Pakistan’s success, and our success in Pakistan will be Afghanistan’s success. The future of both the countries is linked to each other through cultural, religious and geographical ties. President Musharraf made these observations at a joint press conference after his meeting with President Karzai in Kabul.

It is Pakistan’s desire to expand relations based on economic, trade and commercial interests because while Pakistan provides sea linkage to Afghanistan with the rest of the world, Afghanistan provides land linkage to Pakistan for central Asian republics. He emphasised that the intelligence sides must cooperate with each other. President Hamid Karzai thanked President Musharraf for visiting Afghanistan to personally congratulate him on his election victory. He said that it was a matter of pride for him and the Afghan nation that President Musharraf had proved that Pakistan, his people and government share in the welfare, happiness and reconstruction of Afghanistan. Both the countries would make it certain that they don’t allow their land to be used for terrorism and they would extend their cooperation in this regard.

Afghanistan is that close neighbour of Pakistan with which our religious, cultural, trade and economic relations do not merely span over centuries but due to divided families in border areas, and common racial, ethnic and racial values, there has never been an obstacle in the free movement of people on both sides of the border. Although after the establishment of Pakistan, Afghanistan had opposed the membership of Pakistan at the UN but in 1979 at the time of Soviet military intervention in that country, Pakistan did much for its neighbour - including accepting about five million Afghan refugees, and for many years playing the role of a front line state. Unfortunately, as a result of this, a kalashnikov and heroin culture developed in the cournty, which Pakistan is still facing, and which has adversely affected our social and moral values. In the past, Pakistan spent 10 million rupees every day on Afghan refugees in addition to the aid given by the world community. President Musharraf has cooperated in every way in the reconstruction in Afghanistan. Pakistan has provided an amount of 100 million dollars, a major share of which has already been spent on development and construction work in that country.

Pakistan has also been providing transit trade facilities to Afghanistan, which helps Afghan traders in exporting their goods tax-free. President Musharraf has rightly said that the future of both the countries is linked to each other, especially in the expansion of relations based on trade and commercial interests that would benefit people of both the countries. Pakistan has already provided Afghanistan with the facilities of the sea route. It is now also working on strengthening air and land routes. Apart from construction of railway line from Chaman to Kandahar, roads are also speedily being built between Torkham and Jalalabad, and from Chaman to Kandahar. Pakistan is ready to provide electricity to border areas of Afghanistan, increase the scholarship for Afghan students in Pakistani universities, and help in the construction of academic blocs in the universities of Kabul, Jalalabad and an artificial limb centre at Mazar-e-Sharif. Pakistan has also welcomed President Karzai’s idea for the membership of Saarc. All this shows that Pakistan considers its future linked with Afghanistan and the progress and prosperity of that country as its own success.

Peace and stability is the basic pre-requisite for all-round development and for this Pakistan has not only sided with the international community in the campaign against terrorism but it has also started an operation for ending this menace, tightening its grip on the masterminds of terrorists and hounding them out. Although this campaign is continuing all over the country, in Waziristan and tribal areas, its circle has been widened. About 60,000 Pakistani soldiers have been stationed to check the movement of the terrorists at the borders.

It is for the first time that people in Afghanistan have directly elected through the ballot their president, Hamid Karzai. In this way, in the centuries old history of Afghanistan, a democratic process has begun. Now it would be for the Afghan government to play its role in ensuring the stability and expansion of this democratic process. Certainly, the Afghan President has a difficult situation to face in view of the racial and ethnic interests as also the tribal way of thinking. Warlords are also busy creating trouble for the government. But if the Afghan rulers are able to correctly sense the deprivations of the people of their war-torn country, sincerely make efforts to remove them and do all to come to the expectations of the people, and transform their electoral promises into practical shape, it would not merely stabilise and expand democracy but will also help in increasing the confidence of the people in President Karzai and strengthen his rule.

Food insecurity growing in northeast
MAIMANA, 8 November (IRIN) - Sitting outside their house in the isolated Charshanbe Afghania village, Ajab Gul's children had to wait until late in the day before the nine-member family had their only meal.

Gul, a 35-year old returnee, is the only breadwinner for his malnourished children, mother, wife and disabled father, has to travel 70 km to earn five loaves of bread to feed his family every day.

"Each day is a challenge and like a game that must be won, Gul has to go and find some bread and the children and I have to find drinking water which is miles away from here," Razu Khan, Gul's father, told IRIN in the Qaisar district of the northwestern Faryab province. "We eat once in 24 hours, here is no food, no water, no health services here and worst of all, no work to earn a living."

Gul's family are some of nearly a million people who are threatened by poverty and a severe drought in Faryab. Officials and aid workers in Maimana the provincial capital of Faryab told IRIN immediate assistance mainly food items was required to prevent any human tragedy during the harsh winter.

"More than 70 percent of the people are stricken by severe poverty and need emergency food items," Amer Latif, governor of Faryab, told IRIN. The governor said existing aid was not meeting the needs of the population. "There is very little relief assistance and if we do not take action, most of the [Faryab] districts will be closed by snow and no aid can reach these needy people for the next six months," he maintained.

The journey to Faryab from northern Balkh province illustrates the problem. It takes nine hours in a four wheel drive vehicles on dusty tracks across the Laili plains to reach the isolated province.

The population of the province has been severely affected by the drought that swept Afghanistan between 1999 and 2002. About 80 percent of agricultural land in the region is rain fed. For most people, livestock, homes and property are all long gone. As a result of the disaster many people left, ending up in camps close to western and southern Afghan cities.

Many former farmers interviewed by IRIN said lack of rainfall had led to virtually no local food production. "I am severely in debt as I borrowed to buy seed. I promised to pay back the money after the harvest, but there was no harvest, unfortunately," Sameh Bai, a peasant in Almar district of Faryab told IRIN. He said the cost of essential food was very high in the local market as most of the items were imported from the Balkh province, more than 200 km to the east.

"We need beans, rice, oil and wheat urgently just to survive until the next cultivation season," Bai said, adding people had started migrating to other parts of the country as well as to Iran and Pakistan in the last couple of weeks. "I have sent my sons to Iran just recently for labour work, " he added, surveying barren land around his house that used to be rich with wheat.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), agricultural production in Afghanistan has once again suffered a sharp decline due to lack of rainfall in some areas and drought in others.

Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has identified this year's drought as the worst in living memory. The agency says the most vulnerable areas lie in southern, western and southeastern Afghanistan, including Nimruz, Kandahar, Paktika, Zabul, Kunar, Logar and the northeastern Faryab province.

"Based on the 2003 National Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (NRVA) and the current production levels, it is estimated that some 6.3 million people may not be able to cover their basic food needs during the 2004/2005 marketing year, " Maarten Roest, a spokesman for WFP told IRIN in the capital, Kabul. Roest said more than US $50 million was needed to tackle the severe drought.

WFP officials in Maimana said, they had allocated 9,000 mt of wheat to the most vulnerable districts in Faryab. "The current situation in Faryab is not good. Drought is the main problem in this province and due to this there is severe problem of water and food," Radha Rankirkar, head of WFP's Maimana sub office told IRIN.

The UN agency's effort to feed 1.4 million people in the affected areas, required an additional 80,000 mt of mixed food commodities, valued at $52 million, to be distributed until next year's harvest in May.

Aid workers said they have noticed that in some areas, crops had failed completely. "As we enter the lean season, this dramatic setback will cause food insecurity to rise sharply and, consequently, the need for assistance to grow" said Roest

The Adventure of Building an Independent Press
Diana Cariboni / Inter Press Service (IPS)
MONTEVIDEO, Nov 8 (IPS) - In Afghanistan ”there is intimidation, violence, and serious security problems,” but ”the most difficult thing is to ask the questions without which a reporter cannot exist. Asking why and what for,” says Argentine journalist Ricardo Grassi, who has set out to help create an independent press in that war-torn Middle Eastern country.

Pajhwok Afghan News began to produce news reports shortly before the Oct. 9 national elections. Interim President Hamid Karzai's triumph was officially announced Nov. 3.

Afghanistan is currently occupied by 20,000 U.S. soldiers and some 3,000 troops from other NATO member countries.

Grassi, a journalist for 35 years and a leftist activist in Argentina in the 1970s, is a former chief editor of the IPS (Inter Press Service) international news agency.

He was in Afghanistan researching ways to foment the creation of media outlets, in an effort financed by the European Union, when he was invited to organise and head an independent news agency, he told IPS in an e-mail interview from Kabul.

IPS: What did you think of the elections?

GRASSI: At first I agreed with the Afghans who tried to postpone them to gain time to create representative political parties, capable of truly negotiating with the United States.

But the United States, and especially (President) George W. Bush, didn't care about that. Bush wanted to be able to say ”we brought democracy to Afghanistan” before (the U.S. elections). Nor was it a concern shared by the U.S. oil company Unocal, to which the two ”presidents” of this country, Karzai and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, were advisers.

For years, Unocal has wanted to build a pipeline that would cross Afghanistan from north to south. The elections could be seen as a farce that culminates the real story.

But eight of the 11.5 million registered voters turned out for the elections (of a total population of 28 million). That turnout adds value that goes beyond any farce and changes the country. Now we have to see how things go.

Throughout history, the Afghan people have always driven out whoever occupied the country: Cyrus the Great, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, the Russians, the British, the Soviets...

IPS: How did you end up in Afghanistan, heading Pajhwok?

GRASSI: In 2003, the European Commission (the EU executive organ) hired British journalist Nick Nugent and me to produce a report on the media in Afghanistan, recommend policies and evaluate independent media.

In our recommendations, we underlined the need to continue supporting independent media, and to create a public information system and restructure Radio and Television Afghanistan (RTA) and the national news agency, Bakhtar Information Agency (BIA).

RTA and BIA are governmental, along the lines of the model of the former Soviet Union, which has not yet been modified. We recommended removing them from government control, with an initial phase of state funding and, once it exists, support from parliament, like what you see in Europe, and with an autonomous administrative council made up of independent figures.

I was in charge of designing, and setting up the budget for, the new national news agency. I was interested in taking charge of the reorganisation of the BIA. But the European Commission had not yet decided to grant the necessary funds.

In April, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) invited me to organise and lead an independent news agency, which is now called Pajhwok Afghan News. Pajhwok means ”echo” in Farsi (Persian) and Pashto.

IPS: What role does the IWPR play?

GRASSI: It is the most serious non-governmental organisation that came to Afghanistan to train journalists. The only one with a solid method and an interest in training Afghan trainers. There are already 10 Afghan reporters capable of training others.

The London-based group, which is active in 22 countries, started working here two years ago, under the leadership of two extraordinary people, Lisa Schnellinger and Thomas Willard, both of whom are from the United States.

In January they decided to take a big step: provide daily news coverage by an agency that would also serve as a training mechanism. They raised the funds to do so, and the budget I manage is 2.3 million dollars. The plan is for Pahjwok to be totally Afghan by the time my work is done, in March.

IPS: How does the agency work?

GRASSI: The trainee journalists are in a process of learning, although they are being paid. Each reporter, editor, translator, driver or archivist is evaluated by the Afghan trainers and by foreign journalists from the newsroom: a Bulgarian woman, two Afghan-American women, a woman from the United States, an Englishman, and myself. I have discovered an enormous advantage to being Latin American.

IPS: Advantage in what sense?

GRASSI: Latin America is poor. To exercise our profession, we have learned the art of being creative and living on our wits, and our passion is stronger than our remuneration. That experience helps break down the unhealthy relationship that tends to be established here with the ”rich” people who come from Europe or North America.

But even more important than that is the fact that in Latin America we have developed a critical vision of news and the different actors involved.

The media always tends to focus on a country of the industrialised North as the main actor: it is Japan or Germany that grants a loan to a country of the developing South, and the country from the South is almost never the protagonist.

This is a key difference, and a reporter from the industrialised world has a hard time seeing it, while most people from the developing South mechanically repeat the formula -- until a Latin American shows up and says it should be the other way around.

In Pajhwok we try to ensure that Afghanistan and its people are always the main actor.

IPS: Does Afghan journalism exist?

GRASSI: Prior to the Taliban regime (that controlled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001), the country was occupied by the Soviets, who invaded in December 1979 to prop up the Communist regime in power since April 1978. All of the media were -- and are -- government-run.

What has changed now is that there are independent media, although they all depend on financing from some development agency or other. There is no advertising market yet that could ensure self-sufficiency, but there will be.

IPS: Were there any past experiments in independent journalism?

GRASSI: Yes, but very few, and long ago. Most of the reporters who work with me are between the ages of 20 and 35, and have been living in a country at war for 24 years. Which means they know little to nothing of any other reality.

IPS: Pajhwok began to produce news reports a few days before the Oct. 9 elections. How did that turn out?

GRASSI: Good and a bit disorganised. There is little to no experience here in sales and marketing. We had to begin before the elections, although we weren't completely ready. We set up a temporary web site, but I am organising the launch of a new site for when we have the final version ready.

We have a great advantage: we can cover things that are off-limits to foreigners, and our reporters are familiar with the local reality -- a familiarity that takes years to acquire. This is a multicultural, tribal country...with thousands of years of history.

The local media use our stuff quite a lot, and we still celebrate every time someone gives us credit when doing so. That is happening more and more. But distributing our reports is difficult.

Very few media have a connection to the Internet, between 80 and 90 percent of Afghans are illiterate, and the local radio stations are the most important media, since television production is complex, costly and is only making progress slowly.

IPS: What infrastructure does Pajhwok have?

GRASSI: The central offices are in Kabul, where we have a staff of 120. There are also four other offices: in Herat, Jalalabad, Mazar-e-Sharif and Kandahar, with two correspondents in each and many foreign workers. Now we plan to expand the network to other provinces.

We have modern technology and a very big house in Kabul, with a nice green yard surrounded by tall rose bushes.

IPS: How do you find reporters?

GRASSI: We take out ads, and people show up. Many of them aren't reporters, but they're interested in the idea of becoming one. They all go through the basic training course.

Every morning we hold a meeting to decide on the day's coverage. We need an interpreter for this, but it has become so natural that we don't even notice anymore. There is also training involved here too: asking hard questions on why each story is being written, how it will be covered, what sources will be interviewed.

Many have insufficient knowledge of grammar in Farsi or Pashto, the two languages in which we produce our reports.

IPS: Are there women on the staff?

GRASSI: More women than men, which is a problem when it comes to covering certain issues and at certain times of day. This is a ”naturally” sexist reality. But women don't live with that in the dramatic manner depicted in the West. Men believe they dominate, and they do on the surface. Women suffer that surface, cruelly, but they have subtle means that are so deep that the men cannot even imagine.

We are now in (the sacred Muslim month of) Ramadan. People don't eat or drink anything, even water, until 17:25 in the evening. Most stop working sometime between 14:00 and 15:00, and the tradition is for women to have the meal ready at 17:25.

But in the agency we decided that we had to keep working until at least 18:00, in shifts. The first reaction by the men was to say that the women couldn't participate in the shifts. I insisted that they themselves had to make that decision. You can imagine what they decided. One of the women always stays on.

IPS: From a distance, the task of gathering and disseminating information in a climate of war seems quite difficult.

GRASSI: There is intimidation, violence, serious security problems, and the country is very isolated geographically. But the main difficulties are the ones I mentioned before, and the most difficult thing is to ask the questions without which a reporter cannot exist. To ask, above all, why and what for. To question everything, even the way we write.

IPS: Will you stay in Afghanistan?

GRASSI: My contract with Pajhwok ends on Feb. 28, although I already know that won't be enough time. How long will I stay here? Who knows. When I came the first time it was for only three months. I've already been here a year. Now I've started to study Farsi. I have made some good friends. I miss my wife and children a lot, although they are already independent. (END/2004)

Afghan Ambassador Called On Senator Shahzad Waseem
Press Release 2004-11-09 08:38:20 Pak News
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan : Nov 09 (PID) - His Excellency Dr. Nanguyalai Tarzi, Ambassador of Afghanistan called on Senator Dr. Shahzad Waseem, Minister of State for Interior and discussed with him matters of mutual interest. The Afghan Ambassador thanked the Minister of State for Interior for the way the Government of Pakistan is looking after the Afghan refugees.

The Afghan Ambassador also thanked the Minister of State for Interior for the excellent security arrangements made by the Government of Pakistan to facilitate the Afghan Refugees to cast their vote in the Presidential Election of Afghanistan. “We are deeply thankful to the people and the Government of Pakistan for hospitality extended during a long and difficult period of time” The Afghan Ambassador said.

The Minister of State thanked the envoy for his visit and hoped that two brotherly countries would work closely to combat the challenges of terrorism and poverty.

Strong Pak-Afghan Ties For Regional Stability
2004-11-09 08:18:22 Pak News
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan : Nov 09 (SADA) - President Pakistan Muslim League Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain has said that the good neighbourly relations and friendship between Pakistan and Afghanistan can lead to durable peace as well as political and economic stability in the region.

While felicitating the newly elected President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, Ch. Shujaat Hussain said that with his victory the brotherly as well as bilateral relations between the two countries will further strengthen in the days to come, said a statement the PML central secretariat issued here on Monday.

The PML president also appreciated his reciprocal efforts to the Pakistan's initiatives for strengthening bilateral relations, anti-terrorism cooperation, enhanced trade and economic activities between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He also said that Pakistan and Afghanistan are the Muslim and neighboring states and maintaining durable peace and stability is in the interest of both the states as well as their peoples. He maintained that the governments of both the countries share a common approach on all issues confronting them including terrorism, peace, drugs business and illegal smuggling.

Pakistan has a foreign policy based on excellent relations especially with its neighbors which has now started bearing fruit and it's ranking in the foreign world has improved as a result of the successful policies of President General Pervez Musharraf on all sensitive issues including terrorism.

Referring to the $100 million Pakistan's package for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, Ch. Shujaat Hussain said that Pakistan and its people have always extended their maximum cooperation in strengthening this neighboring Muslim state and assured that this cooperation will continue in future to the possible extend.

At the same time he also hoped that Hamid Karzai-led government will reciprocate in this regard that will lead to the revival of peace and stability in the region.

Three Afghan soldiers killed
Dawn
KABUL, Nov 8: Three Afghan soldiers were killed and two wounded in a night attack by suspected Taliban elements in southeast Afghanistan, a police chief said on Monday.

The deaths and injuries occurred when militants armed with machine guns and rockets attacked a checkpoint at Arghandab in Kandahar province on Sunday night, provincial police chief Khan Mohammad said.

"We suspect that they were Taliban," Mr Mohammad said.

He said police were sent to the district to try to track the attackers.-AFP

$14m released for border security
By Shafiq Ahmad Dawn
PESHAWAR, Nov 8: The federal government has released $14.75 million to the Governor's Fata secretariat for the border security project in Kurram and Khyber agencies. While a tranche of $8.8m would be released for the same project in Mohmand and Bajaur agencies within a couple of days, official sources said.

Official sources told Dawn here on Monday that the US administration had provided $23.55m grant for the purpose of strengthening security and improving vigilance to curb the narcotics smuggling from Afghanistan through these four tribal regions.

The amount was a part of the US assistance extended to Pakistan as being frontline state in the "war on terror". The amount would be spent on establishing several checkpoints for levies at important and strategic locations in Kurram, Khyber, Mohmand and Bajaur agencies, the official sources maintained.

The ministry had recently released over $14.75m for Kurram and Khyber agencies, while the remaining amount would be released within a couple of days to the Governor's Fata secretariat, officials said.

The agency-wise allocation of the amount is as follows: $6.75m for Kurram Agency, $8m for Khyber Agency, $4.55m for Mohmand Agency and $4.25m for Bajaur Agency.

The US has planned to provide $3 billion for development and security assistance to Pakistan over five years, in annual instalments of $600m.

Over $50m has been projected directly for counter- terrorism and counter-narcotics fight. A sizable chunk of this amount would go to border security along Pakistan-Afghan border and small portions each to law enforcement, crop control (of drugs) and programme support.

Iran says will retaliate if nuclear plants hit
2004-11-09 09:06 China Daily
Iran threatened on Monday to strike back at Israel or any other country that attacked its nuclear facilities.

U.S. and Israeli officials accuse Iran of seeking to develop atomic bombs under cover of a civilian nuclear program. Iran denies the charges saying it only intends to produce electricity from nuclear power plants.

"If Israel or any other country attacks any site in Iran, we know no limits to threaten their interests," Deputy Revolutionary Guards Commander Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr said.

"That means anywhere in the world, within their borders or outside it," he told reporters on Monday on the sidelines of an anti-U.S. conference in Tehran.

Israeli warplanes successfully destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981. Iran has stationed anti-aircraft batteries around its nuclear plants and built many of its facilities underground.

Iranian officials have also warned they can strike back at Israel with its medium-range Shahab-3 missile, which can also hit U.S. military bases in the Gulf.

Zolqadr denied Iran was developing nuclear weapons, saying the Islamic state preferred to rely on a volunteer militia force, which he said numbered 10 million, to defend the country.

Earlier the commander addressed high-school students at a conference entitled "The World Without America."

"The world without America is a world without oppression, without terror, without invasion, without massacre," he said in a speech that catalogd U.S. "crimes" ranging from the massacre of native Americans to the atom bomb on Hiroshima.

A video clip played for the audience showed gruesome pictures of injured children lying in hospital beds in Iraq, which U.S.-led forces invaded last year.

Zolqadr said an Iraq-style invasion of Iran was out of the question thanks to Iran's growing military might.

"We have assessed the American armed forces in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan ... they are not unknown or mystical to us any more," he told reporters after his speech.

Iranian and EU officials said on Sunday a deal had been struck between Iran, Britain, Germany and France after two days of talks in Paris that could see Tehran avert U.N. Security Council sanctions over its disputed nuclear program.