TEHRAN/Jeddah – Iran Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki hit back on Tuesday against US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's warning that the Islamic republic is becoming a military dictatorship. Mottaki has retorted that it is the United States that has become a military dictatorship, pointing to its wars in Vietnam through Iraq and Afghanistan. He criticised Clinton's Mideast tour, which took her to Saudi Arabia on Monday, saying it was "overflowing with contradictions and incorrect actions". "Those who have been the very symbol of military dictatorship over the past decades, since the Vietnam War until now, see everyone else in the same way," Mottaki said at a press conference with his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu. Clinton's comments a day earlier reflected Washington's increasingly pessimistic outlook for persuading Iran to negotiate limits on its nuclear programme, which the US believes is aimed at producing a bomb. Clinton warned that the elite Revolutionary Guard's growing influence in Iran was pushing the country into military dictatorship. Mottaki repeated Iran's stance that its nuclear programme is peaceful and "absolutely legitimate". He said Clinton's remarks were based on "inappropriate interpretations". He also implicitly urged China and Russia to resist US efforts to persuade them to back further UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, warning them not to follow Washington's lead. "It is clear for our Chinese friends that the US plans to have upper hand in Africa once it dominates the Middle East's energy resources," he said, referring to Beijing's widespread influence in Africa. In Jeddah, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday the "evidence doesn't support" Iran's claimed it was pursuing a peaceful nuclear programme. Clinton, explaining to a student at a Saudi women's college why Washington was taking a tough line on Iran when Israel allegedly has nuclear arms, said Tehran claimed it had peaceful aims "but the evidence doesn't support that".
