Iranian Youth Feel Misunderstood

T E H R A N, Iran, Feb. 6 -- Days after President Bush located Iran on the international "axis of evil," Tehran's 20-somethings say they feel misunderstood, marginalized and resigned.

Sitting in a Tehran living room just days after Bush told the world her country exports terror, 25-year-old Neda Ghasemi said she wondered if the West would ever get the picture right.

"I have heard that a lot of foreigners think that we go around on camels," she said. "Considering their people think this, it doesn't matter that the American government thinks we are terrorists."

Bright, educated and ambitious, Ghasemi was being flippant, and she knew it. But her comments betrayed Iranians' very real need for the world to simply understand them.

Painful Accusations

For Iran, a longtime foe of the hard-line Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan, and a major backer of the Northern Alliance during its pre-Sept. 11 war against the Taliban, the Bush administration's assertions that Tehran was trying to destabilize the new administration in Afghanistan have been particularly painful.

On Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accused Tehran of helping Taliban and al Qaeda members escape into Iran, a charge Tehran swiftly and vociferously challenged.

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In an interview with Reuters today, Iranian Defense Minister Adm.Ali Shamkhani warned the United States not to underestimate Iran. "It will be a mistake for anyone to take aim at our independence. We will not hesitate a moment in defending our freedom, independence and other values," he said.

But speaking at a news conference in Tehran today, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi sounded more conciliatory as he called for U.S. help to trace al Qaeda fighters who may have fled to Iran.

"Instead of waging negative propaganda, the Americans hadbetter give us any information they have so that we go afterthem and keep them out of Iran," Kharrazi said at a joint newsconference with visiting South African Foreign MinisterNkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.