Iran blames US for Middle East instability

US policy in the Middle East has brought only instability and insecurity to the region, a top Iranian official said on Feb. 10. "The [US] policy of denial, isolation, adventurism, sanctions can only serve instability in our region," Iran's chief nuclear negotiator and secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani said in a speech. "The terrorists are justifying their presence in Iraq because of the occupation and so the Americans announce they will send more troops.... I don't know how we can break this vicious circle," he told an annual gathering of top security and defense officials in southern Germany. Larijani also said insecurity caused by the United States had an economic impact as well. "Any insecurity in our region is... an impediment to economic growth," Larijani said. Larijani chided the United States for the CIA-sponsored coup that toppled Iranian nationalist President Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953, which ushered the US-backed Shah into power until the 1979 Islamic revolution exactly 28 years ago. Regarding the country's nuclear program, which the United States and its Western allies claim is aimed at developing nuclear weapons, Larijani said it was a peaceful program and would be used only to generate electricity. He also reiterated that Iran would not suspend its uranium enrichment program but was open to ways of assuring the world it could not produce highly enriched uranium fuel for weapons in its enrichment centrifuges. "I have read American scientists saying there are centrifuges that can only enrich to a certain level. That is acceptable," he said. Two days prior to Larijani's speech, Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned their country would target US interests around the world if it came under attack over its disputed nuclear program. His comments were accompanied by an Iranian naval commander's statement that the Revolutionary Guards had test fired missiles that could sink "big warships" in the Gulf, the waterway where a second US aircraft carrier is now heading. "The enemies know well that any aggression will lead to a reaction from all sides in the Iranian nation on the aggressors and their interests around the world," Khamenei said. The missiles "can hit different kinds of big warships in all of the Persian Gulf, all of the Sea of Oman and the north of the Indian Ocean," said senior Revolutionary Guards naval commander Ali Fadavi. Fadavi said the missiles can carry warheads of about 1,100 pounds and have a maximum range of 220 miles. Iranian state television said the missile tests were "to show that Iran is able to confront any possible threats." But Khamenei said of the prospect of an attack, "We believe that no one will make such an unwise and wrong move that would endanger their country and interests." Khamenei continued: "Some say that the US president is not the type who acts based on calculations or thinks about the consequences of his action. But even these people can be brought to their senses." He said US policymakers know that Iran "would not let an invasion go without a response." Another top Iranian cleric, former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, made similar remarks, warning that any military attack on Iran "would be very costly for the United States." He said it was unlikely that Washington would "take such a stupid action." But Rafsanjani, who currently chairs a powerful consultative group called the Expediency Council, charged that the United States "wishes to see a dependent Iran and avoids considering Iran as a regional or global power."