Iran FM: US-UK provoking terrorist acts in region

Tehran, March 8, IRNA – Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Monday that the US, UK and their troops present in Afghanistan and Pakistan were provoking terrorist acts in the region.

Mottaki made the remarks in his address to the 17th International Conference on the Central Asia and Caucasus.

“Foreign countries' bases in our region have been established neither for security nor for stability of the regional states or for military cooperation with them, but they have rather been established based on the expansionist goals of foreign powers and for interfering in internal affairs of regional states,” Mottaki told the audience.

He warned regional states to be alert about activities of foreign powers’ military bases in their territories.

Referring to the fact that the notorious terrorist ringleader, Abdolmalek Rigi, was to meet with US officials in a US military base in Kyrgyzstan before being arrested by Iranian security forces late February, Mottaki addressed US officials: “You have to be accountable for what talks you were to hold with Rigi in your military base in Manas?”

Mottaki told hegemonic powers that they act opposite to their words and that is why the world nations would no longer trust them./end