MOSCOW, February 6 (RIA Novosti) - A senior member of the lower house of the Russian parliament said Monday that the tense situation around Iran and the recent publication by some European newspapers of controversial images of the founder of Islam could be links in one chain.
Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the international affairs committee, told journalists: "It is extremely important for the West now to bring pressure to bear on the Muslim world, which seems ready to back Iran in its confrontation with the international community, and split the Arab and Muslim world."
The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, adopted a resolution Saturday to inform the UN Security Council on the Iran nuclear issue, which escalated after Tehran announced it had ended its two-year moratorium on nuclear research on January 10. The resolution urges Iran to resume its moratorium on nuclear fuel research, to ratify an additional protocol to its agreement with the IAEA, and to allow the agency to clarify all aspects of its past nuclear activities.
Stepping into the growing storm around the caricatures of Prophet Mohammed that have appeared in European media, Kosachev said the original decision to publish the cartoons in the Danish press in September had either been down to a lack of foresight or a lack of judgment. But he said the decisions made by other publications to reprint the cartoons was considerably more worrying, as they meant that European nations had literally announced that they lived by their own rules alone.
Against this backdrop, the parliamentarian said any attempts to democratize the Middle East were destined to fail. "The Muslim world has the right to reject European values," he said.
The MP said European leaders should distance themselves from such media actions but added that they should not apologize for the publications, as "freedom of the press is freedom of the press."
Nevertheless, the MP called on the international community to condemn recent attacks on European missions in a number of Arab states, as the issue had to be kept within the confines of political or public debate without the use of force.
