No excuse for US presence in region
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman says the news of Osama bin Laden’s death has left the US and its allies with no excuse to stay in Afghanistan.
“We hope that this development will end war, conflict, unrest and the death of innocent people, and help to establish peace and tranquility in the region,” Ramin Mehmanparast said in a statement released on Monday.
“This development (Bin Laden’s death) clearly shows that there is no need for a major military deployment to counter one individual,” he added.
Mehmanparast underlined that “Iran, as one of the main victims of terrorism, strongly condemns any act of terror in the world including organized terrorism in the Zionist regime [of Israel].”
Meanwhile, member of the Parliament (Majlis) National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Javad Jahangirzadeh said the United States conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden for fear that he would leak classified and sensitive information.
“How could a terrorist (Osama bin Laden) hide himself from intelligence sources …and intelligence services cooperating with the West,” the Iranian lawmaker asked.
He went on to say that the al-Qaeda leader was a key figure in promoting Islamophobia and showing a violent image of Islam and had been terminated in order to prevent him from leaking sensitive intelligence.
“Naturally the West was satisfied with Bin Laden’s performance over the past years, and today, as they believed their [anti-Islam] project had been completed and so to prevent the leaking of valuable information they were forced to kill him,” Jahangirzadeh said.
In a televised speech on Sunday, US President Barack Obama announced that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been killed in a US operation in Pakistan.
“Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children,” Obama said.
“The United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, in Pakistan. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden, and took custody of his body,” he added.
Meanwhile, a US official says bin Laden’s body has been buried at sea, alleging that his hasty burial was in accordance with Islamic law, which requires burial within 24 hours of death.
This is while burial at sea is not an Islamic practice and Islam does not determine a timeframe for burial.
The official added that finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world’s most wanted man was difficult, so the US decided to bury him at sea.
