Algerian political support to Iran

Algeria's Popular National Assembly Speaker Ammar Saadani said here Sunday the West, by creating an uproar on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent remarks about Israel at an international conference, was trying to rally the international community into putting more pressure on Iran, the official Iranian news agency reported.

IRNA said: During a meeting with Iranian Ambassador to Algeria Hossein Valeh, Saadani turned to the subject of President Ahmadinejad's statements which caused an uproar among world leaders and said the Iranian president was only repeating what the late Founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini once said, that is, that "the Qods occupier regime should be wiped off the map." "Westerners tried to make President Ahmadinejad's remarks sound like a threat, but they were actually only using them as a pretext to put Iran under pressure," the speaker said.

He was confident Iran could easily overcome the negative effects through strong diplomacy.

Praising the current level of Tehran-Algiers ties, he said his country would always support Iran's just stances in international fora.

Shifting to the double standards often applied in international relations, the Algerian speaker said big powers use certain international institutions to bully weaker ones which try to insist on their rights.

"There was nothing new in the remarks of Iranian President Ahmadinejad on the Zionist regime. But the media made a ballyhoo of his statements but opted not to focus on the comments of the Iranian president regarding Palestine at the recent UN session for certain political reasons.

"The uproar that they tried to create was intended to instill fear in countries that seek justice and enforcement of their rights.

News Agencies