Tehran: Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei lashed out at US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
on Wednesday, saying she had spread "lies" against the Islamic
republic during a tour of the Gulf.
"Those who have turned the Persian Gulf into an arms
depot in order to milk regional countries for money have now
dispatched their official to go around the Persian Gulf and
spread lies against Iran," Khamenei said referring to Clinton
at a meeting with visitors from the northwestern city of
Tabriz.
Clinton wrapped up her visit on Tuesday to the Gulf where
she drummed up support for new round of UN sanctions against
Tehran for pressing ahead with its sensitive uranium
enrichment programme in defiance of repeated Security Council
ultimatums.
During her trip, Clinton said that Iran was moving
towards a "military dictatorship" and that there was no
"evidence" to support Tehran's claim that its nuclear
programme was entirely peaceful.
Clinton's tour of Qatar and Saudi Arabia aimed to isolate
Iran from its Arab neighbours and to put pressure on Tehran's
ally Beijing to drop its resistance to UN sanctions targeting
mainly Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, February 17, 2010, 18:54