Region | Iran
Iran says US is too stretched to attack it
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has told a German magazine that the United States has too many problems in Iraq to become involved in armed conflict with Iran.
- Agencies
- Published: 15:01 July 29, 2007
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki reiterated that Iran had no intention of curtailing its uranium enrichment programme.
Berlin: Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has told a German magazine that the United States has too many problems in Iraq to become involved in armed conflict with Iran.
Mottaki was quoted as saying during an interview for Focus magazine that the US "is not in a position to get into a new military conflict."
He added, "170,000 American soldiers can guarantee neither their own safety nor the security of Iraq."
The US and its allies say Iran's nuclear fuel enrichment programme is aimed at developing nuclear weapons, while Iran insists it is purely for peaceful power generation. Military action is sometimes discussed in Washington as an option in trying to halt the programme.
The United Nations has imposed sanctions on Iran for failing to stop enrichment, but Mottaki reiterated that Iran had no intention of curtailing the programme.
He dismissed the UN sanctions already imposed and said that tougher penalties would not change Iran's mind.
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