Iran Rejects Allegations of Regional Meddling

Photo Credit: PBS

Iran’s Foreign Ministry refuted claims Monday from both Bahrain and Kuwait of interference and spying respectively. Bahrain convicted eight people Sunday of conspiring with Iran to overthrow Bahrain’s monarchy. Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast denied any such involvement in Bahrain’s uprising, adding that the Bahraini government should listen to the “people’s demands.” Additionally, Iran called ”baseless” the sentencing of two Iranian nationals living in Kuwait to life in prison for spying. The Iranian government has had no access to the two detainees and expressed hope the Kuwaiti government will reconsider.

In regards to Syria, Mehmanparast also reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to the Kofi Annan‘s peace plan, calling it the “best solution” to opening a dialogue and implementing reforms. This came after Iran blamed the killing of 108 people over the weekend in Syria on “terrorist actions”  instead of the Syrian Army.

Meanwhile, Iran’s parliament, the Majlis, elected former speaker Ali Larijani of the United Front party to be interim speaker of the newly seated 9th Majlis. Muhammad Sahimi writing for PBS calls Larijani’s win, and that of two other United Front politicians, a setback for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ commanders’ control in the Iranian parliament, and “may even be interpreted as a setback for [Ayatollah] Khamenei himself.” However, Ayatollah Khamenei called the recent elections and the new parliament a “powerful message by which the Iranian nation addresses the contemporary world.”