MP: Bin Laden's Death Obviates Necessity for US Deployment in Afghanistan

TEHRAN , May 4 (FNA)- The official announcement of Osama bin Laden's death by the US president means that Washington has no more excuse to have a military buildup in Afghanistan, a senior Iranian legislator reiterated on Tuesday.
"Given the fact that Americans themselves admit bin Laden's dead, it should thus be stated that the United States' continued military presence in Afghanistan has no legitimacy anymore," Rapporteur of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Kazzem Jalali told reporters on the sidelines of an open session of the parliament today.

He said the US attacked Afghanistan under the pretext of arresting or killing bin Laden, but Americans in fact attempted to use bin Laden as a tool to promote their goals in the region.

"In addition to using bin Laden as an instrument during his life, the US is now trying to make a political use of his death and his dead body," Jalali said.

In relevant remarks on Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast had also said that the US-led West has no more excuse for invading and occupying the regional countries after the death of bin Laden.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran believes that campaign against terrorism which served as a pretext for the alien countries to invade the region has now vanished," Mehman-Parast said.

Obama announced on Sunday that bin Laden was killed in a US operation in Pakistan.

Obama said he had directed helicopter-borne US armed forces to launch an attack against a heavily fortified compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan on Sunday acting on a lead that first emerged last August.

Senior US officials said that in addition to bin Laden, three adult males died in the raid, two who were believed to be couriers for the Al-Qaeda leader, and one who was said to be one of his adult sons.

One woman who was being used as a human shield was also killed, the officials said.