Iran's Foreign Ministry yesterday condemned remarks made by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who over the weekend lashed out at Iran for seeking to cause chaos and demanded its neighbors push Tehran to renounce its nuclear program
"Basically, this expression is an intervention in the domestic affairs of the regional countries," ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters. But Hosseini said Gates' comments on Saturday and other "activities by the U.S. have not succeeded in creating differences among the countries." In his speech during a global security conference in the neighboring Arab country of Bahrain, Gates appealed to Persian Gulf nations to support penalties designed to force Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment. Those nations, Gates said, also should demand that Iran "openly affirm that it does not intend to develop nuclear weapons in the future." Iranian officials had abruptly decided not to participate in the security conference. Hosseini said Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki did not attend because he was busy with various agendas in Tehran
Iran's Foreign Ministry yesterday condemned remarks made by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who over the weekend lashed out at Iran for seeking to cause chaos and demanded its neighbors push Tehran to renounce its nuclear program.
"Basically, this expression is an intervention in the domestic affairs of the regional countries," ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters. But Hosseini said Gates' comments on Saturday and other "activities by the U.S. have not succeeded in creating differences among the countries." In his speech during a global security conference in the neighboring Arab country of Bahrain, Gates appealed to Persian Gulf nations to support penalties designed to force Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment. Those nations, Gates said, also should demand that Iran "openly affirm that it does not intend to develop nuclear weapons in the future." Iranian officials had abruptly decided not to participate in the security conference. Hosseini said Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki did not attend because he was busy with various agendas in Tehran.
The United States and some of its allies accuse Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons - a claim denied by Iran, which says its nuclear program aims only to generate electricity.
Iran has already been faced two rounds U.N. Security Council sanctions over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a process that can produce either fuel for a reactor or a nuclear warhead.
Gates' appeal to Arab Gulf countries comes after a U.S. intelligence estimate released Monday concluded that Iran actually had stopped atomic weapons development in 2003. That was in stark contrast to a 2005 estimate that said Tehran was continuing its weapons development.
