IRAN and Hussein's henchmen

One US charge against Syria is that it has given refuge to Hussein's henchmen. Iran,which views Iraq as an enemy, will avoid that charge, as this Reuters dispatch (15/4/03) explains:"Iran said it would arrest and put on trial any Iraqi leader that fled to its territory to escape the US-led war in their country. "If Iraqi leaders want to cross into Iran illegally, we'll arrest them and try them because of all those crimes they have committed against our nation," Foreign Ministry representative Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters. Asefi did not say whether Iran would consider handing over any top Iraqi officials found in Iran to US or British forces. The US has issued a most-wanted list of 55 members of the deposed Iraqi leadership, their pictures displayed in a pack of "playing cards". Iran welcomed the fall of Saddam Hussein, hated for ordering the use of chemical weapons against Iranian troops during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. But it has also denounced the occupation of Iraq by "military aggressors" as an attack against Islam and Muslims".

Ronald Hilton - 4/15/03