Iran slams UAE likening to Israel on islands row

Iran on Wednesday reiterated its rule over three disputed Gulf islands and rebuked the United Arab Emirates for comparing Tehran's control to an Israeli occupation, as the Revolutionary Guards prepares for maneuvers in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

"Comments made about the Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf are neither right nor well-considered," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told Mehr news agency.

"With cooperation within the Islamic world in mind, we have always sought to warn against the main threat in the region which is the regime occupying al-Quds (Jerusalem)," he said alluding to Israel.

"Misunderstandings between friends can be resolved through bilateral talks," he said, while calling on United Arab Emirates (UAE) leaders to "avoid comments which benefit the Zionists."

On Tuesday, Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan likened Iran's control of the three strategic islands in the southern Gulf to Israel's occupation of Arab territories.

Iran, under the rule of the Western-backed shah, gained control of the islands in 1971, as Britain granted independence to its Gulf protectorates and withdrew its forces.

The Islamic republic took possession of the Lesser and Greater Tunbs, while a third, Abu Mousa -- the only inhabited island -- was placed under joint administration in a deal with Sharjah, now part of the UAE.

But the UAE says the Iranians have since taken control of all access to the strategic island and installed an airport and military base on Abu Mousa.

Misunderstandings between friends can be resolved through bilateral talks

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast

Three days of maneuvers

Also Iran's supreme leader denounced on Wednesday U.S. "nuclear threats" against the Islamic Republic, and its elite military force said it would stage war games in a waterway crucial for global oil supplies.

The Revolutionary Guards' exercises this week take place at a time of rising tension between Iran and the West, which fears Tehran's nuclear program is aimed at developing bombs. Iran denies the charge.

Obama made clear this month that Iran and North Korea were excluded from new limits on the use of U.S. atomic weapons -- something Tehran interpreted as a threat from a long-standing adversary.

"The international community should not let Obama get away with nuclear threats," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said according to the semi-official fFars news agency.

Brigadier General Hossein Salami, also quoted by Fars, said three days of maneuvers would start on Thursday and would show the Guards' naval strength.

"Maintaining security in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, as the world's key economic and energy routes, is the main goal of the war games," he said. "This war game is not a threat for any friendly countries."

Naval, air and ground forces from the Guards would take part, Fars said. The Islamic Republic's armed forces often hold drills in an apparent bid to show their readiness to deter any military action by Israel or the United States, its arch foes.

Maintaining security in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, as the world's key economic and energy routes, is the main goal of the war games

Brigadier General Hossein Salami

No US-hitting missiles

However Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi denied the Islamic republic is planning to develop ballistic missiles capable of striking arch-foe the United States, as alleged by Washington.

"We have no such plans," Vahidi told the official IRNA news agency, describing the allegations as "part of the enemy's psychological warfare."

Vahidi was reacting to Tuesday comments by a senior U.S. official James Miller, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, who told a senate hearing Iran could by 2015 develop missiles that could strike the U.S.

Miller added that his assessment assumed "foreign assistance" to enable Iran to improve its missile technology.

A report last year from the U.S. Air Force National Air and Space Intelligence Centre had postulated that Iran could build an intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit U.S. soil by 2015-2018, if it received outside help.

Vahidi, however, said Wednesday Iran was producing an air defense system equipped with aerial radar, and a domestically produced missile having a range of 40 kilometers (25 miles) and an altitude of 20 kilometers.