In contrast to Mr. Ahmadinejad's defiance of the United States, which demands it halt its nuclear efforts, Iran's foreign minister yesterday offered to help the United States withdraw its forces from Iraq.
Speaking at the International Institute of Strategic Studies security conference in Bahrain, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said, "If the United States changes its attitude, the Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to help with the withdrawal from Iraq. Fifty percent of the problem of insecurity in Iraq is the presence of foreign troops."
Iran has begun installing 3,000 centrifuges in an expansion of its uranium enrichment program that brings the Islamic nation significantly closer to large-scale production of nuclear fuel, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday.
He also said the international community was yielding to Tehran's demands to continue its nuclear program.
"Resistance of the Iranian nation in the past year forced them to retreat tens of steps over Iran's nuclear issue," the semiofficial Fars agency quoted Mr. Ahmadinejad as saying. Fars is considered to be close to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.
In contrast to Mr. Ahmadinejad's defiance of the United States, which demands it halt its nuclear efforts, Iran's foreign minister yesterday offered to help the United States withdraw its forces from Iraq.
Speaking at the International Institute of Strategic Studies security conference in Bahrain, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said, "If the United States changes its attitude, the Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to help with the withdrawal from Iraq. Fifty percent of the problem of insecurity in Iraq is the presence of foreign troops."
Mottaki echoed calls made last week by Iran's top national security official, Ali Larijani, for Persian Gulf Arab countries to eject American bases in their countries and establish a regional security pact with Iran. He went further and offered deeper cooperation with Persian Gulf Arab states on energy, tourism, business and counternarcotics.
