US Turning Persian Gulf into 'Tinderbox Ready to Blow Up': Iran’s Zarif
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned against an arms race in the Middle East, saying recent US weapons sales have turned the Persian Gulf region into a "tinderbox ready to blow up".
In an interview with Al Jazeera on Monday, Zarif referred to a recent decision by the US to form a maritime coalition in the Persian Gulf and said more warships in the region would only lead to more insecurity.
“The US (sold) $50bn worth of weapons to the region last year. Some of the countries in the region with less than a third of our population spend $87bn on military procurement. Let's make a comparison, Iran spent last year $16bn on all its military with almost one million people in the army.
“The UAE with a total population of one million spent $22bn, Saudi Arabia spent $87bn. If you are talking about threats coming from the region, the threats are coming from the US and its allies who are pouring weapons in the region, making it a tinderbox ready to blow up,” Zarif stated.
“This (the Persian Gulf) is a tiny body of water and the more foreign naval vessels you have in this body (of) water the less secure it is for everybody. Based on experience, the presence of US and foreign naval fleet in the Persian Gulf has never produced security.
“We have sad memories of a US ship downing an Iranian airliner in 1988 (and) killing 290 passengers. We believe the best the Americans can do for protection of maritime navigation is to just leave people alone. Don't interfere, this is a hostile act against Iran and I don't believe any other impact other than insecurity.”