Ayatollah Fadlallah: West attempting to create rift between Iran and Arabs

Source: MNA, 08-03-2009

TEHRAN - The U.S. along with "Israel" and many European states are attempting to "create a rift between Iran and Arab countries", Lebanon's top Shiaa cleric Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah has stated.
The U.S. seeks to make the Arab countries in the Persian Gulf region afraid of Iran's nuclear program, he told ISNA in an exclusive interview published on Sunday.

However, Iran has made "comprehensive efforts" to prove that U.S. policies are wrong, he added.
The cleric said former U.S. secretary of states Condoleezza Rice tried to make Iran look like Arabs' number one enemy and "Israel" as their friend so that Arab states would form a coalition against Tehran.

But such actions have always failed as Iran's policies towards the Persian Gulf countries are "open", he added.
For instance, he said, to clear up misunderstandings about former Iranian Parliament speaker Ali Akber Nateq Nouri's recent remarks with regard to Bahrain, Iranian officials took immediate action to elaborate on remarks by Nateq Nouri to prevent any misinterpretation and this showed Iran's "positive and open" policies towards Arab countries.

Ties between Iran and Bahrain were apparently strained when Nateq Nouri was quoted by the Western and some Arab media outlets as saying Bahrain was the 14th province of Iran until 1970.