Iran keeps up 9/11 rhetoric

TEHRAN, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- Washington is using the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as a way to make its foreign policy objectives an untouchable third rail, an Iranian lawmaker said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad irritated Washington last week when he told the U.N. General Assembly that "some segments" in the U.S. government "orchestrated" the Sept. 11 attacks in order to reverse declines in the U.S. economy and "save the Zionist regime."

U.S. President Barack Obama in an interview with the BBC's Persian service said the Iranian president's statements were "hateful," especially considering U.N. headquarters are only a few blocks from Ground Zero.

Nevertheless, Iranian officials continued with the theme by attacking Washington's use of the attacks as a foreign policy tool.

Bijan Nobaveh, a member of the Iranian parliament, said Washington was using the events of Sept. 11 as a sacred issue similar to the Holocaust.

"In that case, no country or individual will dare to make a word about the incident and the United States will then be able to pursue its policies as it wants in the future," he told the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

The lawmaker went on to say that Americans were trying to link Muslims to the attacks as justification for military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia.

"They wanted to imply that Muslims caused the attacks and therefore the United States could wage a war against them," he said.