Won’t use force against Muslim neighbours: Iran

[1]

Manama, Dec. 4: Iran sought on Friday to calm the fears of its Arab neighbours, saying it would never use force against them because they are Muslims, after the United States highlighted concerns over Tehran’s suspected nuclear weapons programme.

The foreign minister, Mr Manouchehr Mottaki, was speaking at a conference on West Asian security at which Jordan’s King Abdullah II said Israeli-Palestinian peace talks must be rescued from collapse to ensure regional and world stability.

“We have never used our force against our neighbours and never will because our neighbours are Muslims,” Mr Mottaki told journalists on the sidelines of the Manama dialogue, which the US secretary of state, Ms Hillary Clinton, opened on Friday.

“Your power in the region is our power and our power is your power,” he said.

Ms Clinton had said US concerns over Tehran’s nuclear programme are shared by Iran’s neighbours in the Gulf, through which most of the world’s oil flows.

Mr Mottaki cautioned against submitting to “pressure by outsiders to divide us and create instability,” saying “the presence of foreign powers will not help establish security in the region” and urging cooperation among Gulf countries.

He said it was vital for Iran to “have stability and security, because we (Iran and its neighbours) provide the world with most of its energy.”

The Manama Dialogue comes as US diplomacy reels over state department cables published by Wikileaks.

Some of the most prominent headlines highlighted widespread fears among Arab countries in the Gulf about Iran’s nuclear programme and their calls to nip it in the bud.