By Xinhua
Tehran : Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said on Thursday that Iran’s military does not threat any country in the Middle East, state television reported.
“The United States is trying to introduce Iran as a threat to peace and security in the Middle East, yet our armed forces are not threatening any country in the region,” Najjar was quoted as saying in Bushehr, southern Iran.
Referring to the strategic significance of the Gulf waterway, he said that Iran does not allow any foreign force to endanger the security of the Straits of Hormuz or the Gulf.
During his recent tour in the Middle East, U.S. President George W. Bush said that “Iran is today the world’s leading state sponsor of terror.”
The U.S. president accused Iran of supporting Hezbollah, Hamas, Taliban, al-Qaida and its affiliates as well as extremist Shiites in Iraq, defying the United Nations and destabilizing the region by refusing to be opened about its nuclear program.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini has rejected the accusations, saying “Bush’s statements are the signs of desperation, hopelessness and the sense of failure in his last months of presidency.”