Iran's foreign minister says recent unrest in Iran was caused by U.S. "interventionist" strategies and called them some of the nation's most serious security challenges. Mohammad Javad Zarif also alleges that foreign powers — including regional rival Saudi Arabia — stirred up unrest.
Zarif spoke Monday at an international conference on Middle East security in Tehran with more than 200 Iranian and international officials and experts, according to Iranian media reports.
Conference director Jalal Dehghani Firouzabadi says the defeat of the Islamic State has changed the security situation in the region, and Iran and other nations and groups must now chart a new course.
The conference started two days after a U.N. Security Council emergency meeting on the protests roiling Iran.
The talks follow a week of protests in Iran, which was the biggest public display of discontent since the 1979 revolution. At least 22 people were killed during the demonstrations, and more than 500 arrests have been made across the country.
The anti-government protests followed food price hikes and started Dec. 28 in Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city. The disturbances later spread to other cities.
"Some countries tried to misuse the recent incidents," foreign minister Zarif said without mentioning Saudi Arabia. "No country can create a secure environment for itself at the expense of creating insecurity among its neighbors."
Zarif says the impression that Islamic State is finished is "false," and U.S. policies are a source of instability in the region.
"The U.S. is still ignorant of objective facts across the region and insists on pursuing its destructive and tension-creating policies through its illegitimate military presence on Syrian soil," he said.
Zarif also said that the continued occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel is the most critical issue facing the region.
At the conclusion of his speech, the Iranian foreign minister warned against the destabilizing impact of the arms race in the region, saying that Saudi Arabia, the United States and Israel are fanning the flames of regional crises through their interventionist policies.
Read More Iran Blames Unrest on US, Other Foreign Powers : http://ift.tt/2AJ8DWg
No comments:
Post a Comment