The Iranian president Mohammad Khatami on Wednesday lashed out at America for its aggressive stance, stating that Tehran would not recognize a US-installed administration in Iraq and warning Iran would support Syria were it attacked.
"We will not recognize any administration other than an all-Iraqi government. However, we are not seeking tension or confrontation with anybody," he said.
Khatami added, "The Iraqi nation will not accept any foreign rule." His comments come at a time of increasing tension for Iran, which faces pressure from the EU over its nuclear program amid concerns that Tehran may be close to producing a nuclear bomb.
With the end of the war in Iraq, international attention is shifting to Iran, which has denied it has a weapons program but has so far refused to agree to a more intrusive UN inspections regime.
Western governments fear Iran no longer requires outside technical expertise to manufacture a nuclear weapon and may plan eventually to withdraw from its international obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
The fear among some western diplomats and analysts is that the increasingly belligerent stance of Washington towards Iran and Syria may backfire and push Tehran to speed up its weapons program. Khatami yesterday made a point of rallying to Syria's side. "Syria is on the frontline against Zionist pressures, defending the cause of the Palestinian nation, freedom and peace in the region. We will defend Syria, but it doesn't mean we will engage in military confrontation," he said.
The UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has de-manded unfettered access to Iran's nuclear program to investigate declared and undeclared sites that would indicate whether Iran is attempting to produce weapons-grade plutonium.
But Iran has refused to sign up to the non-proliferation treaty's "additional protocol," drafted after the 1991 Gulf War.
Iranian officials have said they would be willing to agree to the "go anywhere" inspections regime only if trade sanctions were lifted, allowing access to technical assistance for the nuclear program.
Iran has tried to develop a nuclear program since the 1980s but the US managed to block Tehran's attempts to find a western European partner. With Pakistan, India and Israel possessing nuclear weapons and flouting the non-proliferation treaty, conservative clerics ruling Iran may see the nuclear program as a deterrent, analysts say.
The IAEA is due to deliver a decision in June on whether Iran has broken the non-proliferation treaty.
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