Israeli-Iranian Conflict

Iran Accuses Quran Burning in U.S. "Planned by Israel"

Xinhua
September 9, 2010

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki Thursday condemned a U.S. church's plan to burn the Quran and said this has been planned by Israel, local satellite Press TV reported.

Mottaki warned of the reactions of Muslims and the followers of other religions, the report said.

"Such actions will ignite the reaction of not only the world's Muslims but the followers of other divine religions," he was quoted as saying.

The U.S. officials should carry out their duties to guarantee the basic right of American Muslims and prevent the promotion of such offensive acts, Mottaki said.

The Iranian foreign minister described the plans to burn the Quran, by a U.S. priest, as "soft war" schemed by Israel following its failures in the wars against Muslims, he added according to the report.

Terry Jones, a pastor at the Florida-based Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, plans to mark the 9/11 attack by burning copies of the Quran in his church on Saturday.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that the planned burning is a "disgraceful plan" which could be harmful to the U.S. troops.

'No True Christian Would Burn Quran'

PressTV
September 10, 2010

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast says no pious Christian would support the "evil" plans of a US church to burn copies of the holy Quran.

The remarks were made after a meeting with foreign ambassadors, as plans by Florida pastor Terry Jones to torch copies of the Quran on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attack continue to draw condemnation from Muslim and non-Muslim leaders.

"We are certain that no true follower of Christ is willing to act in line with this pastor's wishes and go down this path with him," Mehr News Agency quoted Mehmanparast as saying on Thursday.

Mehmanparast said Foreign Minister Mottaki had called on the envoys to discuss the anti-Islamic plans with their governments and properly respond to this matter.

He went on to echo earlier remarks by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who denounced the plans as a "Zionist plot, and against the teachings of all divine prophets."

Jones' decision has even angered the Catholic Church, with the Vatican council blasting the Florida church's scheme as an "outrageous and grave gesture against a book considered sacred by a religious community.”

Senior Washington officials have slammed the plans as "disrespectful," "disgraceful" and "un-American."

Earlier on Friday, angry demonstrators marched in Tehran to condemn the Islamophobic decision, as protests in neighboring Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as India and Indonesia continued.

Following the fierce international condemnation of the plan, Jones, a radical evangelist, announced on Thursday that he had put his Quran burning plans on hold.