TEHRAN, Feb 16 – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has tried but failed to dupe the Arab states of the Gulf about their neighbour Iran, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Tuesday.
Reacting to Clinton\’s charge that Iran was moving towards a "military dictatorship", Mottaki said she was diverting the region\’s public opinion towards "unreal and incorrect issues."
"We see such approaches as a new deception, although its nature is clear to the people and authorities in the region," the foreign minister said, quoted by ILNA news agency.
"America itself is trapped in a kind of military dictatorship, promotion of old militaristic approaches and fuelling tension and instability in the region," he charged.
Clinton said in Doha on Monday that the tough sanctions which Washington wants adopted against Iran would target its elite Revolutionary Guards, which she said was "supplanting" the Tehran government.
"We see the government of Iran, the supreme leader, the president, the parliament is being supplanted, and Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship," she said.
Clinton, who held long talks with Saudi Arabia\’s King Abdullah later on Monday, was on Tuesday wrapping up a Gulf mini-tour aimed at building support against Iran\’s controversial nuclear project.
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