Rice: Iran and Syria 'incited violence'
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, has accused Iran and Syria of fuelling anti-Western sentiment, in a row over cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad.
Rice said both countries went out of their way to exploit Muslim anger at the caricatures. The accusation came as the UK embassy in Iran came under attack. Western embassies in Syria and Lebanon were burnt down over the weekend. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and his counterparts called the drawings offensive, but expressed alarm at the violent worldwide reaction to them.
The cartoons originally appeared in the best-selling Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September to accompany an editorial criticising self-censorship in the Danish media.
Since then some media outlets have republished the pictures in solidarity, while others - including the BBC - have refrained from publishing them to avoid causing offence to their audiences.
Rice said both countries went out of their way to exploit Muslim anger at the caricatures. The accusation came as the UK embassy in Iran came under attack. Western embassies in Syria and Lebanon were burnt down over the weekend. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and his counterparts called the drawings offensive, but expressed alarm at the violent worldwide reaction to them.
The cartoons originally appeared in the best-selling Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September to accompany an editorial criticising self-censorship in the Danish media.
Since then some media outlets have republished the pictures in solidarity, while others - including the BBC - have refrained from publishing them to avoid causing offence to their audiences.
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