Iran, India Call for Nonaligned Effort to Halt War in Gulf
Iran told India on Saturday that it is ready to cooperate on a Nonaligned Movement initiative to halt the Persian Gulf War.
“We believe the movement must take swift steps in connection with the crisis,” President Hashemi Rafsanjani told Indian External Affairs Minister Vidya Charan Shukla.
“We are fully prepared to cooperate in this regard so that we may stop this unequal war,” the Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Rafsanjani as saying.
Shukla, also calling for a nonaligned initiative, said Iraq should withdraw its forces from Kuwait. “We are against the presence of alien forces in the region,” the Indian minister said.
Iran has strongly condemned U.S.-led air raids on Iraq. But Rafsanjani, stressing Iran’s neutrality, said Friday that siding with Iraq, which fought a war with Iran from 1980 to 1988, would be suicidal for Tehran.
Iran, Iraq and Kuwait are members of the 102-nation Nonaligned Movement, which was founded 30 years ago to counterbalance Eastern and Western blocs.
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