Daily reproaches Australian govt for Sydney attack

Tehran, Dec 18, IRNA - 'Iran Daily' on Thursday reproached the Australian government in their dealing with the hostage-taking attack in Sydney, describing their responsibility as 'weak and unprofessional'. The English-language paper was commenting on the live coverage of the incident by several news channels which showed the security forces failed miserably in their duty to prevent the man from carrying on the attack, despite cameras showing many people being captured by the hostage-taker several times near the window in the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Martin Place district. A black flag with white Arabic script was raised during the incident that showed a link between the hostage-taker and terrorist groups operating in the Middle East, pointed out the paper in its Opinion column. Despite the long distance between Australia and the Middle East, the incident showed that no country is immune from the activities of terrorist groups, added the daily. This is while terrorist groups are being used as a tool by certain Western groups to achieve their evil purposes. Finally, this incident ended with the death of three people, including the hostage-taker, and injuries caused to several others. Evaluating on the incident, the daily reasoned as to why the security and political services of the country failed to control the high-profile person with many criminal cases and allowed him to easily obtain a gun and ammunition to carry out his terror act? Doesn’t this show the weakness of Australian security services and the low security in this country? Unfortunately, the share of Australian officials’ blame in this incident is very high because of their inattention to the warnings of the Islamic Republic of Iran about this man, underscored the daily. On several occasions, Iran informed Australian officials about the crimes and mental instability of the hostage-taker (Man Haron Monis ) through different channels, but they did not pay attention and granted asylum to him, pointed out the paper. Although this man was charged with killing his wife and sexual assaults on several women in that country, Australia refused to extradite him to Iran, wrote the paper, noting that the hostage-taker lied and attended public places dressed as a clergy to campaign against the Islamic Republic. Despite this, the Australian government took no steps to prevent his activities and even gave him freedom under the media spotlight, criticized the daily. This is while many refugees, who went to Australia for better job and living conditions, have been arrested and deported to deserted islands, highlighted the paper, criticizing what it called 'the double standards' of Australia which are worth studying. On several occasions, Iran asked Australian officials to observe human rights and international regulations in dealing with refugees, but unfortunately they did not pay attention to these appeals, it further noted. Following several rounds of negotiations and follow-ups by Iranian officials, Australia agreed to send a delegation to Iran to discuss the situation of Iranian refugees, but they postponed the trip, pointed out the daily. While propagandist organizations in Australia are encouraging people to immigrate, the Australian Parliament recently passed a bill that would make immigration to the country very tough. International human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have criticized the bill, noted the daily, adding that these double standards and the lack of stable approaches trigger disorders and incidents like the Sydney attack. It’s a shame that despite mismanagement of this incident in a developed country, they point the finger of blame toward Muslims and Iran, which are themselves a victim of terrorism and extremism, pointed out the daily. Those who support extremist and terrorist groups such as the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) for achieving their evil objectives and created turmoil in Iraq and Syria, which has worried the international community, should be charged, suggested the paper. We hope they will reconsider their attitude and we do not see similar incidents in future. Everybody should cooperate to uproot terrorism, the paper concluded. Ebrahim Rahimpour, writer of this article, is Iran's deputy foreign minister for Asia and Pacific affairs./end