ALI AKBAR DAREINI, TEHRAN
Iran's hard-line president cast doubt yesterday on the US version of the September 11 attacks, calling it a pretext used to invade Afghanistan and Iraq.
"Four or five years ago, a suspicious event occurred in New York. A building collapsed and they said that 3000 people had been killed but never published their names," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a rally in the holy city of Qom.
"Under this pretext, they the US attacked Afghanistan and Iraq and since then a million people have been killed only in Iraq," said the president in the speech broadcast live on state television.
Though Iran has condemned the al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, this was the third time in a week Ahmadinejad had questioned the death toll, who was behind the attacks and how it happened.
On the last anniversary of the attacks, the names of 2750 victims killed in New York were read aloud at a service of memorial there.
Last year, Ahmadinejad raised questions over 9/11 attacks, saying "what caused it, what were the conditions that led to it, who truly was involved" needed examined.
In the past, Ahmadinejad has said that the attack was "a result of mismanaging and inhumane managing of the world by the US", adding it should not be turned into another Holocaust and "be used for slaughtering people".
Although Iran did condemn the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the campaigns toppled the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, two regional threats to Iran.
Meanwhile, six-nation talks aimed at reviving nuclear negotiations with Iran yesterday fell short of agreeing on a new package to present to Tehran.
The meeting in Shanghai of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Russia, China, Britain and France - plus Germany and an EU representative, was a first for China, which has kept away from the spotlight in the dispute.
Assistant Foreign Minister He Yafei emerged from hours of bargaining to say the diplomats failed to agree on a fresh plan to offer Iran, which rejected an earlier offer in 2006.
"We can say we agreed on the main content of a plan to restart negotiations, but not all the problems have been resolved," He told reporters.
Earlier, Ahmadinejad said Iran was ready for negotiations on nuclear and other issues provided talks did not violate his country's rights.
Tehran insists it has the right to enrich uranium for providing power. However, the US and Western European powers fear Iran wants to make nuclear weapons.-AP
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