TEHRAN : Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned 'corrupt' powers on Thursday against destabilising the Gulf as US Defence Secretary Robert Gates visited the United Arab Emirates.
"We must ensure our own security in the Persian Gulf, which is the Gulf of friendship and brotherhood," Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the Gulf port of Bandar Abbas broadcast by state television.
"The Iranian people will not allow corrupt world powers to create unrest in the Persian Gulf," said Ahmadinejad, alluding to the Western troop presence in the region.
"What are you doing in our region?, Why have you sent your armies to our area? If you think you can control the oil of Iraq and the Persian Gulf, you are mistaken. The youth of our region will cut off your hands."
With US troops in most of its neighbours, Iran has repeatedly called for a withdrawal of all foreign forces from the region.
During a visit to neighbouring Afghanistan on Wednesday, Ahmadinejad told a joint news conference with his counterpart Hamid Karzai that he did "not see the presence of foreign military forces in Afghanistan as a solution for peace in Afghanistan."
"The question is what are you doing here in this region?" he asked in allusion to the US defence secretary who was in Afghanistan visiting the troops.
"You are 12,000 kilometres (7,500 miles) away on the other side of the world. You are on the other side of the world. What are you doing here? This is a serious question."
His comments drew an appeal from Washington for Tehran to play a "constructive role" in the region and a plea from Karzai for Afghanistan to be spared becoming a proxy battleground for larger powers.
"The future of Afghanistan has a regional dimension and we hope that Iran will play a more constructive role in Afghanistan in the future," said US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley.
"We have issues with respect to Iran, not only within Afghanistan but more broadly in the region," he said.
On a visit to neighbouring Pakistan on Thursday, Karzai said: "Afghanistan does not want any proxy wars on its territory... It does not want a proxy war between Iran and the United States."
In his speech on Thursday, Ahmadinejad also reiterated his controversial prediction of Israel's eventual demise.
"The Zionist regime is the most hated regime in the world. It has reached the end of the line and whether it likes or not, it will disappear," he said.
Israel routinely cites Ahmadinejad's comments about its future as the basis for its deep hostility to the Islamic regime and its determination at any cost that Iran should not acquire a nuclear weapons capability.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2010
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