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Iran potests Peres'

visit to Gulf

TEHRAN: Iran has sharply protested a groundbreaking trip to Oman and Qatar by Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, saying it posed a threat to its national security, newspapers reported here on Thursday.

Omani and Qatari ambassadors in Tehran were separately summoned to the foreign ministry on Wednesday to be informed of Iran's "deep worry and strong protest," they said.

Hossein Sadeghi, the ministry's director general on Gulf affairs, told diplomats that Peres' visit to the Arab states across the Gulf posed a threat to Iran's "borders and national security."

Israel and Qatar signed an agreement to open trade offices in each other's country during a visit by Peres on Tuesday, the first to Doha by a leader of the Jewish state.

Peres earlier visited Oman, which has already agreed to open trade offices with his country.

"The presence of Zionist leaders in any spot of the world creates tension, discord and wreaks suspicion and havoc," the Iranian official was quoted as saying. "This calls for greater sensitivity on the part of Persian Gulf countries."

Iran's paramount leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday denounced the establishment of economic ties between "certain Arab countries and the Zionist regime" as a "sad event."

"The malignant cancer tumor (Israel) is not content with its occupation of Palestine and is taking advantage of the feebleness of some Arab governments to establish economic ties with them," he said. Israel is a "parasite seeking to nourish from the region's economic bloodlife."

Iran is a fierce opponent of making peace with Israel and has called for the Jewish state's destruction.-AFP