From the new World Media Watch up now at
http://www.zianet.com/insightanalyticalTomorrow at Buzzflash.com
2//The Daily Star, Lebanon Monday, August 15, 2005
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=17623 IRAN SAYS U.S. AND U.K. BEHIND ETHNIC CLASHES
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
TEHRAN: Iran accused Britain and the U.S. of instigating recent ethnic clashes involving the country's Kurdish and Arab minorities. "We have information that the U.S. is interfering in the northwest of Iran. That is unacceptable and we are going to protest," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi.
"According to our reports the English have interfered in the troubles in Khuzestan and some (agitators) have been trained in bases under British control in Iraq," he added.
The province of Khuzestan, where there is a large ethnic Arab community, and the Kurdish areas of northwestern Iran near the Iraqi and Turkish borders have been rocked by violence in recent months that has left a number of people dead.
Iran's claims came as it is locked in a standoff with the international community over its nuclear activities, which arch-enemy the United States claims is a cover for efforts to build an atomic bomb.
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