In an exclusive interview with IslamOnline.net, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki touched upon topics ranging from Iran’s nuclear program, to the presence of foreign forces in war-hacked Afghanistan to support for Palestinians resistance.

He gave a passionate defense of his country’s much-criticized nuclear program.

“They (US and West) have been raising this issue unduly. They know we are not going to develop nuclear bomb,” said Mottaki.

“It is nothing but a propaganda that Iran is going to make nuclear bomb and is a threat to regional security.

“We don’t believe in nuclear bomb.”

The West accuses Tehran of developing a secret nuclear weapons program.

Iran insists that its nuclear program only aims at procuring power to feed an increasing local consumption.

“We are like other countries which have energy needs. And we have the fundamental right to cope with our energy needs in line with other countries,” said Mottaki.

He asserts that nuclear weapons do not win wars nowadays.

“Nuclear bomb doesn’t matter nowadays. If it matters, then the US could have won the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Israel could have won the wars in Lebanon and against Hamas, and the USSR could have avoided disintegration.”

Assuring Gulf

The top diplomat tried to assure the Arab world, especially Gulf neighbors, that Iran is not a threat to their security.

“This is merely propaganda. Our nuclear program is not at all a threat to any country, especially those which are located along the Persian Gulf,” Mottaki said, using the Iranian name for the Arab Gulf.

“Some Persian Gulf countries have been raising concerns about Iran’s nuclear program saying that they are merely 120 kilometers away from our main nuclear center,” he added.

“And I respond to them, that we are only two kilometers away from that (nuclear site).

“There is no need to be scared of it.”

Mottaki offered the Gulf countries to send their own experts to visit his country’s nuclear sites.

“We ask them to dispatch their experts to see what our nuclear program is? We have already made it clear to them that Iran’s nuclear program is not aimed at making a nuclear bomb.”

Afghanistan

Mottaki reiterated Iran’s opposition to the presence of foreign forces in neighboring war-torn Afghanistan.

“When innocent people are being bombed in Afghanistan and a leader like Benazir Bhutto is killed in Pakistan, then we are compelled to say that the region is much more insecure and tense after eight years of foreign forces presence in the region,” he told IOL.

“Our realistic judgment is that foreign forces have failed in Afghanistan.”

He cited the aggravating problem of opium cultivation as an example.

“Before the arrival of foreign troops the annual production of drugs was merely a few hundred tons, and after eight years it is over 8000 tons per year.”

Mottaki said his country supported the ouster of foreign forces from Afghanistan and the region.

“Iran has been calling for last eight years that there is no military solution of the Afghanistan problem. The ongoing policies have miserably failed to resolve this problem.”

He believes the solution for Afghanistan is a regional cooperation between Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.

The three countries held a conference in Islamabad last month to formulate a joint strategy to deal with the crisis following the proposed withdrawal of foreign troops.

“We are of the opinion that foreign forces are suffering from a political vacuum in Afghanistan. This vacuum may be widened in 2011. Therefore, we think that the regional countries can fill this vacuumed,” said Mottaki.

“The best strategy to resolve Afghanistan problem, is the regional strategy.”

Cancer Israel

The Iranian foreign minister urged those Muslim states which have recognized Israel to sever ties with Tel Aviv.

“It has usurped the homes and hearths of Palestinians. It has a 60-year-old history of occupation, crimes, and aggression,” he said.

“Therefore, those Islamic countries should sever ties with this illegal state.”

On April 18, 1948, Palestinian Tiberius was captured by Menachem Begin’s Irgun militant group, putting its 5,500 Palestinian residents in flight. On April 22, Haifa fell to the Zionist militants and 70,000 Palestinians fled.

On April 25, Irgun began bombarding civilian sectors of the Palestinian city of Jaffa — the largest city in Palestine at that time, terrifying the 750,000 inhabitants into panicky flight.

On May 14, the day before the creation of Israel, Jaffa completely surrendered to the much better-equipped Zionist militants and only about 4,500 of its population remained.

Israel was created on the rubble of Palestine on May 15, 1948.

“Israel, for us, is like cancer in the body,” Mottaki insisted.

“It’s not Iran, but it’s Israel which poses a permanent threat to the entire region.”