Iran will 'never use' force against Muslim neighbors

By Acil Tabbara (AFP)

MANAMA — Iran sought on Saturday to calm the fears of its Arab neighbors, saying it would never use force against them because they are Muslims, after the United States highlighted concerns over Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons program.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was speaking at a conference on Middle East security at which Jordan's King Abdullah II said Israeli-Palestinian peace talks must be rescued from collapse to ensure regional and world stability.

"We have never used our force against our neighbors and never will because our neighbors are Muslims," Mottaki told journalists on the sidelines of the Manama Dialogue, which US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opened on Friday.

"Your power in the region is our power and our power is your power."

Clinton had said US concerns over Tehran's nuclear program are shared by Iran's neighbors in the Gulf, through which most of the world's oil flows.

Mottaki cautioned against submitting to "pressure by outsiders to divide us and create instability," saying "the presence of foreign powers will not help establish security in the region" and urging cooperation among Gulf countries.

He said it was vital for Iran to "have stability and security, because we (Iran and its neighbors) provide the world with most of its energy."

"Iran is determined to guarantee international security in the field of energy."

Clinton said "there is no debate in the international community, and perhaps the Iranians will engage seriously... on what is a concern shared by nations on every continent, but most particularly right here in the region."

She was referring to talks due to start between major powers and Iran in Geneva on Monday over Tehran's nuclear program.

"Because obviously if you're the neighbor of a country that is pursuing nuclear weapons, that is viewed in a much more threatening way than if you're a concerned country many thousands of miles away. But the concern is the same and we hope that Iran will respond."

The Manama Dialogue comes as US diplomacy reels over State Department cables published by WikiLeaks.

Some of the most prominent headlines highlighted widespread fears among Arab countries in the Gulf about Iran's nuclear program and their calls to nip it in the bud.

The United States and other Western states, along with Israel, suspect Iran is using a nuclear energy program as cover for building a bomb. Tehran strongly denies that.

Mottaki told the conference, "it is our right to create fuel, and to deprive us from our right is scientific apartheid."

On Friday, Clinton urged Iran to be constructive in Geneva.

"We hope that you will come to it, as we will, in good faith and prepared to engage constructively on your nuclear program," she said.

The talks will bring Iran together with the P5+1 grouping of UN Security Council permanent members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany.

For his part, King Abdullah said "our region will not enjoy security and stability unless we solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and Arabs, Muslims and Israelis find peace."

"If hope is killed, radical forces will prevail. The region will sink into more vicious warfare and instability, threatening security far beyond the borders of the Middle East," he warned.

"This is why it is essential that we rescue the new round of negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel," he said of direct peace talks launched in September in Washington.

The talks have ground to a halt as Israel refused Palestinian demands to impose a new moratorium on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.

A 10-month freeze expired on September 26, shortly after the launch of the latest round of negotiations.

The king said "the building of settlements has to stop," and he urged Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to resume "serious negotiations" on all pending issues namely borders, security and refugees.

"The alternative is new conflicts that will reverberate far beyond the borders of the Middle East."

On Friday Clinton told reporters in Manama that Washington is "working intensively" to break the impasse in Palestinian-Israeli talks.

She later said in an interview aired by the US Arabic-language satellite television Al-Hurra that Washington would make announcements next week about the peace process but she declined to give more details.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.