SiberNews - Rajapakse's visit to Iran upsets US

Rajapakse's visit to Iran upsets US

Tuesday, 06 November 2007

Colombo Nov 6: The proposed visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to Iran this month, the dates of which have been kept confidential so far, has drawn the ire of the US which recently imposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran over its controversial nuclear programme.

The US has "made representations" to the government of Sri Lanka to reconsider the visit of the President (Rajapakse) to Iran later this month, the 'Colombo Post' reported on Tuesday.

According to reports, Rajapakse is likely to undertake his visit either from November 9 to 11 or November 19 to 21 and all ground work has been finalised in this regard.

The Iranian Ambassador in Sri Lanka is already in Tehran for this purpose.

"The truth is that Sri Lanka too is facing many a problem with the international community relating to human rights issues," the Nation newspaper said, adding in the circumstances, the President's visit to Iran is likely to cause more heartburn for Sri Lanka rather than bring benefits.

"It appears that the President has either been ill-advised by Foreign Ministry officials or is adamant to visit Iran to show solidarity with the Muslim world," the newspaper said.

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Jay said:

Iran and North Korea are two of the three countries that America referred to as axis of evil. Besides their nuclear ambition, these countries are also reputed to be the front runners in human rights abuses and are considered threats to world peace. Now, North Korea has agreed to abandon its nuclear ambitions to make the world a safer place and to give its poverty stricken people a new lease of life. Sri Lanka with its worst human abuses record and crimes against humanity and its open backing to Iran going nuclear has now replaced North Korea as one of the three countries in the axis of evil. This is a good lesson to the Americans, who had been all along giving military aid to Sri Lanka. Now with America restricting military aid, Sri Lanka is turning to countries like Iran, Pakistan and China who are ever willing to dispose of their military hardware. Sad thing is, it took 60 years of the Tamils struggle for their due rights and within the last 25 years 70,000 lives were lost and a million Tamils displaced for America to realize the Sri Lankan governmentâ??s agenda of ethnic cleansing.

2007-11-08 08:44:00

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