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Iran FM Javad Zarif slams US over arms sales to Gulf

Zarif also decried the US move to form a maritime military coalition to, what it calls, “boost security in the region”.

Iran FM Javad Zarif slams US over arms sales to Gulf

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (Photo: IANS)

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif slammed the United States on Monday of transforming the Gulf into a “tinderbox” with its arms sales to regional allies.

During a visit to the Gulf state, Zarif said, “The US $50 billion worth of weapons to the region last year. Some of the countries in the region with less than a third of our population spend $87 billion on military procurement”.

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“If you are talking about threats coming from the region, the threats are coming from the US and its allies who are pouring weapons in the region, making it a tinderbox ready to blow up,” Zarif was quoted as saying by Press TV.

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He also decried the US move to form a maritime military coalition to, what it calls, “boost security in the region”.

Washington is seeking to assemble a coalition to secure maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz — the key to the global oil trade — following a number of attacks on oil tankers blamed by Washington on Tehran.

Iran strongly denies involvement.

While in Qatar, Zarif met with Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and discussed “issues of common interest”, the state-run Qatar News Agency reported.

Earlier in June this year, tensions spiked when Iran shot down a US drone over sensitive Gulf waters following a series of oil tanker attacks that Washington blamed on Tehran, which the latter denied.

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