Iran Hosting Conference on Enriching Culture of 'Resistance' By Julie Stahl CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief May 01, 2007 http://www.cnsnews.com/news/viewstory.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/20070 5/INT20070501b.html
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday accused "bullying powers" of creating terrorist groups and posing a threat to mankind. In the past, he has frequently referred to the U.S. as a "bullying power." The State Department released an annual report on Sunday saying that Iran is the number one culprit worldwide when it comes to supporting terrorism. Ahmadinejad's comments came on the first day of a two-day summit in Tehran that is being billed as the first international congress on "resistance culture." Resistance is often used as a euphemism for terrorism. Political, intellectual and cultural figures from dozens of countries in the Islamic world, the East and the West as well as major media representatives are participating in the event, according to the official Iranian news agency IRNA. "The organizers intend to reject the baseless accusation of terrorism that is often propagated in Western media nowadays," IRNA reported. Addressing the conference on Tuesday, Ahmadinejad said that the Islamic world was a victim of "organized terrorism." By producing weapons of mass destruction, certain "bullying powers" are the "main elements" posing a threat to mankind. These "bullying powers" have also created "organized terrorist groups," said Ahmadinejad. Iran is currently facing increased international sanctions for defying a United Nations Security Council demand that it halt uranium enrichment, a process used to make nuclear fuel but that can also power atomic weapons. The West believes Iran is using its civilian nuclear program as a cover-up for developing nuclear weapons of mass destruction. Iran denies the charges. Ahmadinejad also was quoted as condemning efforts made by "enemies of Islam" to depict Islam as a religion of violence. The truth, he said, would soon come out. The conference, entitled "Islamic World, Victim of Terrorism" was opened by Ayatollah Mohammad-Ali Taskhiri, director general of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools and Thoughts. At an earlier press conference, Taskhiri reportedly said the event was intended "to help expand the culture of resistance in the Islamic world." The main objective of the conference is to "study terrorism and the ways to confront it, the role of global powers in the emergence of terrorist groups, a distinction between legitimate defense and terrorism, and a distinction between pure Islam and a distorted Islam," Taskhiri said according to the Iranian Mehr News Agency. Taskhiri charged that the Islamic world was under attack from the "global hegemony," which he said was trying to divide Muslims by sowing seeds of discord. The enemy is trying to mix the concepts of "resistance and terrorism" by portraying Islamic "resistance" groups as terrorists, Taskhiri said. The opening of the conference comes one day after the State Department's Office of the Coordinator for Counter-terrorism released its annual report on terrorism, naming Iran as the top offending state. "Iran remains the most significant state sponsor of terrorism and continues to threaten its neighbors and destabilize Iraq by providing weapons, training, advice, and funding to select Iraqi Shia militants," the report said. "Iranian government forces have been responsible for at least some of the increasing lethality of anti-Coalition attacks by providing Shia militants with the capability to build IEDs with explosively formed projectiles similar to those developed by Iran and Lebanese Hizballah," it says, adding that Iran's Revolutionary Guard has been linked to armor-piercing explosives that resulted in the deaths of Coalition Forces. According to the report, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and Ministry of Intelligence and Security were "directly involved" in planning and supporting terror attacks. They also continued to encourage a variety of groups, including Palestinian terrorist organizations headquartered in Syria and the Lebanese Hizballah, "to use terrorism in pursuit of their goals." Iran provided Hizballah and Palestinian terror groups, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades (the armed wing of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction) with "extensive funding, training, and weapons." Iran also has refused to bring to justice or identify senior al Qaeda members that it detained in 2003 and failed to control the activities of some of the al Qaeda members who fled to Iran after the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the report said.(F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with "Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The Copyright Act of 1976. "Fair Use" legally eliminates the need to obtain permission or pay royalties for the use of previously copyrighted materials if the purposes of display include "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research." 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