Iran wants new West Asia without US, UK meddling

Tehran, Aug 16: Iran's president said he wanted a new Middle East, a phrase that echoes language used by the US administration, but said his idea of a new region was one without ''the hegemony of America and Britain''.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during fighting between Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrillas and Israel that the violence marked the birth pangs of a new West Asia..

''In fact our nations also want a new West Asia. The West Asia that our nations want is a free West Asia, free from the hegemony of America and Britain,'' President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said during a rally in northwest Iran yesterday.

The US failure to call for an immediate ceasefire early in the fighting in Lebanon, the line Britain also took, angered many in the West Asia, where there has also been strong opposition to the invasion of Iraq by US and British troops.

Many in the region and Muslim world also view US policy as biased towards Israel.

''They (Israel) attacked Lebanon as an introduction to the new Middle East plan. They were under the assumption that they can stabilize their power by breaking the unity and resistance of the Lebanese nation and expand their influence on the rest of the Middle East,'' Ahmadinejad said.

''I want to announce here that they should not assume that ceasefire means an end to the crisis,'' he said, referring to the ceasefire between Lebanon and Hizbollah in place since Monday.

Analysts say the Bush administration saw the conflict between Israel and Hizbollah as a chance to disarm Hizbollah and punish their allies Syria and Iran.

Iran severed ties with the United States after the 1979 Islamic revolution which toppled the US-backed monarchy. The United States is often described as the Great Satan in Iranian political rhetoric.

The Islamic Republic has diplomatic ties with Britain, but Tehran remains suspicious of the former imperial power which it often accuses of meddling in Iranian affairs.

REUTERS

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