Iran under fire at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East Print E-mail
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Sunday, 20 May 2007

world-economic-forum Arab nations harshly criticized Iran's growing influence in the Middle East, telling the country's top diplomat at a high-level conference Saturday that it must stay out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and be more open about its nuclear ambitions. 

  Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal scolded Iran, saying that the predominantly Persian country had little to do with Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. It's an Arab issue and should be resolved within the Arab fold."

Jordanian Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit was even more blunt, saying: "The Iranian foreign minister was wrong when he said there were 130 plans on Palestinian-Israeli peacemaking ... The Arab peace plan is the first of its kind. It presents a clear and detailed path to peacemaking."

The U.S. accuses Shiite-ruled Iran of helping train and arm Shiite militias and some Sunni insurgent groups in Iraq. Arab countries on the Persian Gulf fear that rising Washington-Tehran tensions could turn explosive and they would be caught in the middle.

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