TEHRAN -- Chairman of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said that Iranian people have taken part in different national elections in the past 24 years since the establishment of the Islamic Republic indicating the importance the Islamic Revolution has accorded to democracy.

In a meeting with European Union Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten, Rafsanjani said that introducing the eligibility age of 15 for the universal suffrage in Iran indicated that the Islamic Republic has placed trust in all walks of life from different age groups to specify the political structure of their country, IRNA reported.

On the Iraqi crisis, Rafsanjani said that the Iraqi disarmament should be carried out under the aegis of the United Nations adding that the Iraqi people themselves should be given the right to determine their own destiny.

He said possible outbreak of war in Iraq will cause irreparable damage to the Iraqi people and the entire nations living in the Middle East.

Rafsanjani said that the international campaign against terrorism is not an acceptable pretext for the U.S. administration to wage war on Iraq.

"The past experience in Afghanistan indicated that terrorism and drug trafficking have been intensified since the U.S. bombardment of Afghanistan. As the U.S. officials have admitted so far, al-Qaeda and the Taleban have not been destroyed," he said.

"The U.S. administration is seeking to install a puppet regime in Iraq to gain domination over the Iraqi oil, on one hand, and hence render support for the Zionist regime on the other," Rafsanjani said.

He said that Iran respects Iraqi sovereignty and territorial integrity and sees establishment of U.S.-installed government as the worst choice for Iraqi future.