He made the remark while addressing a ceremony to commemorate martyrdom of the former chief justice Ayatollah Mohammad Hosseini Beheshti who, along with several ministers and dozens of MPs, attained martyrdom in a bomb blast by the terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) at the headquarters of the Islamic Republic Party in June 1981.

Referring to the MKO as a politically bankrupt group, Rafsanjani said that even the French officials call it a terrorist group.

As to the occupation of Iraq by the US forces, he said the public opinion in the US and Britain have realized that the US and British officials have deceived their people and have no special planning for running the war-torn Iraq.

The Iraqi people cannot tolerate the US occupiers who have planned to plunder their oil resources, he added.

The US forces will not benefit from the new conditions in the region, he said adding that their presence in the region will only lead to more loss of life.

Pointing to the recent unrest in Tehran and some other parts of the country, the EC chairman said the US President George W Bush has announced his support for a group of hooligans who have tried to set public assets on fire and destroy them. Such a move by the US president is surprising, he added.

Washington believes it can fight the Iranian nation by a small group of agitators, he said stressing that the Iranian people are ready to sacrifice all they have for their revolution.