Ahmadinejad accuses US of creating Iran, Arab tension

TEHRAN (AFP) — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday accused Tehran's arch-foe the United States of wanting to create tension between Iran and Arabs, adding that the attempt would fail.

"America is trying to sow discord among Shiites and Sunnis ... they want to create tension between Iran and Arabs ... but their plan will fail," the hardliner said at Iran's annual Army Day parade, where the military displayed a range of home-built drones and missiles.

"America is not an honest friend and the record shows it has drawn swords against its own friends and those who have sacrificed themselves for America," Ahmadinejad said in a speech broadcast live on state television.

"America has done it in order to save its interests. But they should know that they have no place among nations," Ahmadinejad said.

He said Iran was a "close friend" of world nations and "with alertness of people and their politicians, the new plot by the world arrogance will not prevail," and added that the "Zionist" leaders in the United States would also fail in their attempt to save the "Zionist regime" in Israel.

The Iranian president also predicted a "new Middle East" would emerge but it would not be dominated by the United States and Israel.

"They are seeking a new Middle East. Sure, the people of the region want a new one too, but a new Middle East without the dominance of America and without the Zionist regime which with God's divine grace will materialise," he said.

Ahmadinejad's comments came a day after the Gulf Cooperation Council's six member states, who are collectively ruled by Sunnis, called on the Iranian regime to stop its "interference" in the GCC.

The group called in a statement on "the international community and the (UN) Security Council to take the necessary measures to make flagrant Iranian interference and provocations aimed at sowing discord and destruction" among GCC states.

It said the GCC -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- "categorically rejects all foreign interference in its affairs... and invites the Iranian regime to stop its provocations."

Saudi Arabia separately threatened to recall its diplomats from Tehran unless they were better protected.

"I hope we won't be obliged to withdraw our diplomatic mission from Tehran if Iran fails to take the necessary measures to protect it," deputy foreign minister Prince Turki bin Mohammed told reporters.

A week ago Iranian students demonstrated outside the Saudi embassy in Tehran to condemn Riyadh's military intervention in Bahrain and the "murder" of Bahraini citizens, the official IRNA news agency had reported.

Iran, a predominantly Shiite Muslim country, has repeatedly condemned the dispatch of Saudi troops to Bahrain to support a crackdown on demonstrations there by Shiites, who form the majority of the population of the country.