Iran says U.S. arm sales turning Middle East into "tinderbox"
Zarif warned about the dangers of large U.S. arms sales in the Middle East, where Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia is a major buyer of Western weapons. "The Americans have turned the region into a tinderbox. The level of arms sales by the Americans is unbelievable and much beyond regional needs and this points to the very dangerous policies followed by the Americans," IRNA reported Zarif as saying.
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- Agencies and A News
- Published Date: 12:00 | 08 December 2018
- Modified Date: 06:39 | 08 December 2018
Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday that the United States is selling arms into the Middle East which were beyond the region's needs, turning it into a "tinderbox", state news agency IRNA reported.
"The level of arms sales by the Americans is unbelievable and much beyond regional needs and this points to the very dangerous policies followed by the Americans," IRNA reported Zarif as saying.
"The U.S. policy has brought many modern destructive weapons to the region, which have been no help in establishing regional peace and security," Zarif said ahead of the Second Speakers' Conference in Tehran.
Asked about U.S. accusations that Iran is testing missiles able to reach Europe, Zarif said U.S. officials "spare no effort to disrupt relations between Iran and Europe, so they resort to baseless allegations these days," according to the same source.
"They try to distort the regional issues."