Iran downplays Clinton’s Mid-East tour

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has described US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent Middle East tour aimed at boosting anti-Iran sanctions efforts as ‘futile.’

“The US authorities’ recent movements to create strife among regional countries, including their trips … have been inconclusive,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters in his weekly press conference in Tehran on Tuesday.

Clinton made a four-day visit to the region on Sunday to drum up support among Iran’s neighboring states, urging them to remain focused on enforcing the US-sponsored sanctions on Iran.

“We expect all of our partners who share that concern, as these countries certainly do, to stay as focused as they can, and to do everything within reason that will help to implement these sanctions,” Clinton told reporters in the UAE on Sunday.

Mehmanparast said such activities, including their tours of the Middle East with the aim of tightening sanctions against Iran are also doomed to fail.

“The regional states are highly vigilant and won’t allow the dominant powers to penetrate further into the region through their unity and solidarity,” the foreign ministry spokesman added.

He brushed aside the impacts of sanctions on the development of Iranian nation, saying” Our nation has chosen its path and will firmly pursue it.”

In June, the United States spearheaded international efforts to impose a fourth round of UN Security Council sanctions on Iran over its civilian nuclear program, claiming, without any evidence, that it may include a military diversion.

Iran rejects the allegations as politically-motivated, arguing that all its nuclear activities are under vigorous supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.