Iran hits back at Clinton 'dictatorship' warning

Manouchehr Mottaki hit back at Hillary Clinton's suggestion

Iran has attacked US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over her suggestion that the country is becoming a "military dictatorship".

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called Monday's statement in Qatar a "new deception".

Mrs Clinton had said the government of Tehran was being "supplanted" by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.

"America itself is trapped in a kind of military dictatorship, fuelling tension in the region," Mr Mottaki said.

His remarks were reported by the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency.

"America has a wrong attitude toward the issues in the Middle East and it is a continuation of their past wrong policies," he said.

Saudi concern

On Monday Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister said imposing more sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme would not be a quick enough solution.

ANALYSIS Kim Ghattas, BBC News, Riyadh The Saudi foreign minister did not openly back Washington's call for sanctions, but neither did he say Saudi Arabia was opposed to it. He made clear the kingdom wanted a more immediate resolution to the problem rather than a gradual one. He also said China, a top importer of Saudi oil, did not need to be prodded by Saudi Arabia to know what it ought to do about sanctions against Iran. Saudi officials are known for using very careful, often opaque, diplomatic language. It sounded as though he was saying the kingdom would not use oil as an incentive to prod China to back UN sanctions against Iran. But the statement could also be read as a veiled warning - if China failed to back UN sanctions, it risked upsetting its top oil supplier.

Prince Saud al-Faisal said the threat posed by Iran demanded a "more immediate solution" than sanctions.

He spoke in Riyadh alongside US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who earlier said Iran was "becoming a military dictatorship".

On Tuesday, Turkey's foreign minister is due in Iran aiming to mediate.

Turkey is a Nato member, and Ahmet Davutoglu is expected to try to promote a deal on Tehran's nuclear programme between Turkey's western allies and Iran's Islamic government.

Speaking at a joint Riyadh news conference with Mrs Clinton, Prince Saud said: "Sanctions are a long-term solution. They may work, we can't judge.

"But we see the issue in the shorter term maybe because we are closer to the threat... So we need an immediate resolution rather than a gradual resolution."

While the Saudi minister did not detail his vision of a quick solution in public, it is likely that options were discussed behind closed doors in the meeting between Mrs Clinton and King Abdullah, says the BBC's Kim Ghattas, who is travelling with the top US diplomat.

Clinton's warning

Some regional experts believe neither sanctions nor engagement will work with Iran and have suggested a multi-pronged approach involving intense economic pressure from Iran's neighbours, our correspondent adds.

Hillary Clinton: "Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship"

Speaking to students at a Qatar university earlier on Monday, Mrs Clinton said Iran's elite army corps, the Revolutionary Guard, had gained so much power they had effectively supplanted the government.

"We see that the government of Iran, the supreme leader, the president, the parliament, is being supplanted and that Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship. That is our view," Mrs Clinton said on her maiden visit to the kingdom.

The US and its allies fear Iran is attempting to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran insists its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful.

Turkey has already offered to store Iran's nuclear material as part of a swap arrangement agreed last year.

Under terms of that deal, Iran would get medical isotopes from France in return for handing over its own enriched uranium.

Turkey's government hopes its offer to act as a nuclear repository will appeal more to Iran than storing its uranium elsewhere, says the BBC's Jonathan Head in Istanbul.

But Iran is still insisting that any nuclear swap must take place on its own soil.