Nejad: Iran desires to establish brotherly ties with regional states

Iran desires to establish solid and brotherly ties with the other states of the Gulf region, the Iranian President said. The Islamic Republic of Iran has continuously aspired to cement "its brotherly relations with the states of the region," said Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a meeting with a visiting delegation of eminent Kuwaiti media figures, headed by the Chairman of the Kuwait Journalists Association, Ahmad Bahbahani. Iran believes that all issues of dissension involving Iran and these states can be resolved, however Tehran "believes that rights of the peoples of the region cannot be attained through foreign intervention," he said."We believe that issues of the region should be settled with the determination of the regional countries," said the Iranian president during the two-hour meeting. Some foreign powers are behind some of the problems embroiling the regional states, he charged, adding that the Gulf states are not at odds on basic issues. The president indicated that during his participation in the 2007 GCC summit, he called on the regional countries to seek to secure their common interests without external intervention. On the events in Syria, he called for "calming down the situation," charging that some states have been sending arms to that troubled country. "Syria is a Muslim nation, thus the Islamic states must intervene and seek a collective accord and help in resolving the differences and conducting the reforms," Ahmadinejad added.He accused the United States and its allies of plotting to destabilize the Middle East, and expressed readiness to host a meeting for the Muslim nations to help in settling the problems in Syria "without intervention of the foreigners." "States of the region should seek to secure rights of their peoples without the intervention of the West ... because the West won't withdraw easily and the Zionists will continue to repress the Palestinians and the Islamic countries, harshly," he added. He re-assured countries of the region about safety of the Bushehr nuclear reactor, and reiterated the call to send in delegations to inspect the safety standards applied at the plant. Elaborating, he noted that Western powers, namely Germany, had contributed in launching the reactor project before the Islamic revolution, but later when Tehran opted to shift to Russia for aid for its construction, they claimed "the reactor posed a danger to the region." On the West plan to deploy a missile shield in Turkey, Ahmadinejad said the Turks "are our brothers and close friends but when the enemies decide to station a missile shield there and declare that this action is directed against Iran, in that case we have to be cautious."    The Kuwaiti delegation arrived on Tuesday on a several-day visit to Iran. They include KJA board member and Al-Watan daily journalist Fatma Hussein, Anbaa Editor in Chief Yousef Al-Marzouq, Nahar daily Editor in Chief Emad Bu-Khamsein, KUNA Editor in Chief Rashed Al-Rwaished, Kuwait Times Editor in Chief Abderrahman Al-Elayyan, Al-Rai daily writer Sheikha Fawziya Al-Sabah and Anbaa journalist Faisal Al-Zamel.