Iran asks Arabs to join anti-U.S. military alliance
By Associated Press December 6, 2006
Iran's top national security official urged Arabs on Tuesday to eject the U.S. military from bases in the region and instead join Tehran in a regional security alliance.
The audacious offer was the strongest sign yet of Iran's rising assertiveness in its contest with the United States for influence in the region.
Gulf countries, suspicious of Iran's intentions, are unlikely to respond to the call and push out the American military or end U.S. security deals that they view as offering them an umbrella of protection, many here said.
But smaller countries like Kuwait do now have to tread a fine line between not antagonizing either Washington or Tehran. Some Gulf countries refused to participate in recent U.S. Navy maneuvers in the Gulf so as not to offend Iran.
Iran's top national security official, Ali Larijani, apparently aimed to allay Arab concerns about his nation and raise suspicion about U.S. intentions in his speech Tuesday to a business and political conference here.
He told Arab business leaders and political analysts that Washington is indifferent to their interests and will cast them aside when they are no longer useful.
"The security and stability of the region needs to be attained and we should do it inside the region, not through bringing in foreign forces," Larijani said. "We should stand on our own feet."
Such words are a direct rejection by Iran of the "notion that it can be contained," Vali Nasr, an Iran expert with the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, attending the conference, said in an interview here.
"They're saying it's in our common interest that the U.S. leaves. But their larger message is that 'We don't want to take over the region,"' Nasr said.
Speakers at the Arab Strategy Forum said they believed Iran's rising clout came as a direct result of a faltering U.S. project in Iraq that has put Iran's Shiite allies in control of the government in Baghdad.
Larijani's proposal outlines what analysts here describe as an attempt to split the Arab world into two camps: a U.S.-Israeli-Arab coalition that seeks to contain Iran; and an anti-American, anti-Israeli alliance led by Iran.
Most Arab governments remain firm U.S. allies, but Iran's tough stance against Israel and the West has broad grassroots appeal.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and other countries have expressed misgivings about the growing influence of the Persian Shiite-dominated government in Tehran, which in the 1980s sought to export its Islamic revolution and topple neighboring governments.
"Nobody is asking the Americans to pack up and leave," said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a Dubai-based political analyst. "There are vital American interests here and the smaller Arab countries need protection."
Larijani expressed annoyance at Arab fears about Iranian intentions, saying Iran and its Sunni-dominated neighbors had more in common with each other than with the United States or Israel.
"Some countries consider Iran a threat to the region, forgetting about Israel," Larijani said.
But Tehran's nuclear program is continuing despite the threat of international sanctions, raising fears of a regional arms race. And Iran's Shiite proxy paramilitary groups have been gaining strength in Iraq and Lebanon.
Larijani assured Arab leaders listening to his speech that Iran seeks "peaceful coexistence" and could replace the security umbrella of U.S. bases in the region, including in the Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar. Other countries have strong military training and U.S. security guarantee deals.
"Iran is in pursuit of regional stability through integration," he said. "It stands by all the Muslim governments in the region."
Larijani acknowledged that any U.S. departure from the Gulf would come about gradually, but he contended a consensus was building, even among America's Arab allies.
"We don't accept the relationship between the U.S. and the countries of the region," Larijani said. "If you talk to Arab leaders here, you can sense that they aren't happy with the current situation. They feel the Americans are bullies. They don't want the U.S. ambassador ordering them around."
He told his audience that he believes Washington is caught in a "strategic stalemate" in the Middle East. U.S. policies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and among the Israelis and Palestinians are failing, he said, and pressure on Iran and Syria has not weakened either regime.
Washington needs a major change in policy -- starting with a withdrawal from Iraq -- to improve its standing, and setting a date for departing Iraq is a first step, Larijani said.
"Should there be a timetable, that would serve as a positive sign," Larijani said. "The clearest sign would be an exit or evacuation of American forces from the region."
Iran asks Arabs to join anti-U.S. military alliance
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