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US fears drug, terrorism link
17/01/2008 14:41 - (SA)
Washington - A top US military commander said on Wednesday he fears a "disastrous" link between drug traffickers and radical Islamists in Latin America, where he said Iran wields growing influence.
"I fear greatly that the connectivity between narcoterrorism and Islamic radical terrorism could be disastrous in this region," Admiral James Stavridis, head of the US Southern Command, told a conference on Latin America.
"What I worry about in this region with outside actors coming in to it is the potential for those streams to cross, if you will, for the fuel of narcoterrorism to become engaged in Islamic radicalism here in the Americas, here in our home," he said at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington.
Stavridis accompanied his comments with a photograph of Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad standing alongside Bolivian President Evo Morales.
"This gentleman is Mahmud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran a State that sponsors terrorism," he said pointing to the Iranian leader.
"He is a very dangerous man and he is in this area of the world," the admiral said adding that Iran had already opened 10 embassies in Latin America.
"President Ahmadinejad says he wants to have an embassy in every country in this region," he added.
Stavridis' comments followed President George W Bush's warning in Abu Dhabi on Sunday that "Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere."
- AFP
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