Iran Demands UN Probe Of NATO In Iraq, Afghanistan

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad

Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad wants UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to open an investigation of NATO's presence in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In a letter to the UN chief, Ahmadinejad said captured insurgent leader Abdulmalik Rigi had confessed NATO members were backing his Jundallah insurgency, which says it is fighting for equal rights for the Sunni minority in southeastern Iran.

Jundallah has claimed responsibility for bombing attacks that have killed dozens, including five senior commanders of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard in October.

Ahmadinejad said that as a result of the Western presence "a few million people" had been killed, wounded or displaced, illicit opium poppy cultivation had increased "and the peoples of our region continue to live under the shadow of threat."

UN spokesman Farhan Haq said Ban was studying the letter.

compiled from agency reports