Iran urges regional security alliance

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Iran’s top national security official urged Arabs on Tuesday to expel the U.S. military from bases in the region and instead join Tehran in a regional security alliance.

The offer was a strong sign of Iran’s rising assertiveness in its contest with the United States for influence in the region.

Gulf countries, suspicious of Iran’s intentions, are unlikely to respond to the call and push out the American military or end U.S. security deals they view as offering them an umbrella of protection, many here said.

But smaller countries like Kuwait do have to tread a fine line between not antagonizing either Washington or Tehran. Some Gulf countries refused to participate in recent U.S. Navy maneuvers in the Gulf so as not to offend Iran.

Iran’s top national security official, Ali Larijani, told Arab business leaders and political analysts that Washington is indifferent to their interests and will cast them aside when they are no longer useful.

“The security and stability of the region needs to be attained and we should do it inside the region, not through bringing in foreign forces,” Larijani said. “We should stand on our own feet.”

Speakers at the Arab Strategy Forum said they believed Iran’s rising clout came as a direct result of the faltering U.S. policy in Iraq.

Larijani’s proposal outlines what analysts here describe as an attempt to split the Arab world into two camps: a U.S.-Israeli-Arab coalition that seeks to contain Iran and an anti-American, anti-Israeli alliance led by Iran.