Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei on Sunday called on all neighboring countries to abide by the principle of good neighborliness and not allow the United States and Israel to use their territories and facilities to carry out acts that undermine regional security.
At a weekly press conference in Tehran, the ministry spokesman urged regional countries to respect what he called the principle of good-neighborliness. He was responding to a question about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the UAE.
"Our advice to all neighboring countries is to uphold the principle of good neighborliness. We remain committed to the principle of good neighborliness and, reciprocally, expect neighboring states to respect this principle. They should not allow their facilities and territories to be exploited by parties that have proven, in practice, to have no regard for the security and prosperity of the countries in the region," he said.
The spokesman also addressed several key incidents of the past week regarding U.S.-Iran tensions.
On Saturday, the U.S. State Department said it had expelled the Iranian diplomatic team from New York after they attended the UN General Assembly. Baghaei rejected that claim as baseless, saying the departure of all Iranian diplomats had already been planned, and one diplomat was originally due to stay for several more days but left New York under pressure from the United States. Baghaei said Washington's efforts to isolate Iran had failed.
"The key point is that the United States -- having failed to prevent the Iranian delegation from attending the United Nations General Assembly and unable to execute its agenda of projecting Iran’s isolation -- has apparently resorted to such utterly cheap fabrications, which, in my view, are hardly worth addressing," he said.
Last week, Iran also received feedback from the U.S. on a seven-day plan to build trust. According to Baghaei, however, the U.S. position remains essentially unchanged, with Washington seeking negotiations on the nuclear issue, while Iran is prepared to negotiate only over the Strait of Hormuz.
The spokesman also said that the possibility of leaving the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is now being seriously discussed within Iran's political circles.
