Riyadh/Tehran: 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 with divine grace, a new Middle East without the American dominance and the presence of the Zionist regime will materialise," he said.
Gulf Arab states on Sunday called on the international community and UN Security Council to "make flagrant Iranian interference and provocations" in Gulf affairs cease after unrest in Bahrain.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, after a meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh, called in a statement for "necessary measures" against the Islamic republic to prevent it from sowing regional discord.
The six-nation GCC called on "the international community and the 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 warn envoy recall
The statement also slammed "aggression" against Saudi diplomats in Iran. Earlier on Sunday, Riyadh 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 Mohammad told reporters.
Iranian students had demonstrated on Monday outside the Saudi embassy to condemn Riyadh's military intervention in Bahrain and the "murder" of Bahraini citizens, the official IRNA news agency had reported.
Iran's Fars news agency, which is close to conservatives, had reported that "six to seven petrol bombs were hurled against the embassy" as students chanted slogans against the ruling Sunni dynasties in both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
On Sunday, Prince Turki said: "Shiites in the Gulf are our brothers and have national rights under the umbrella of their loyalty (to their countries) and not to the outside."
Iran has repeatedly condemned the dispatch of GCC troops to Bahrain to support the Bahraini forces' crackdown on demonstrations there by Shiites who form the majority of the population of the country.
