Ban Stresses Peaceful Resolving Of Iran-US Tensions

New York, Jan 7, IRNA - UN leader Ban Ki-moon called here Friday for efforts to ease tensions between Iran and US 'peacefully'. He made the remarks at a New Year meeting with reporters. “Both sides must do their best to first of all defuse the tension in the region, and then to try to resolve all issues, and differences of opinion, through dialogue, in peaceful ways,' Ban noted in response to a question by a Pakistani reporter about UN secretary general's efforts to solve raising tensions between Tehran and Washington. Although the Pakistani reporter’s question was about US-Iran tensions, the UN secretary general also related the matter to Iran’s peaceful nuclear program and also asked Tehran to fully comply with the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council and to ease the international concerns over Tehran nuclear activities. The US showdown with Iran has heightened in recent days with Tehran issuing warning to Washington not to send one of its aircraft carriers through the strategic Strait of Hormuz. An estimated 40 percent of the world's oil supply passes through the waterway. While the Iranian Army's Naval Force held a 10-day drill which ended on Monday in neighboring seas and the Strait of Hormuz, Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) plans to begin new rounds of naval exercises in the Strait of Hormuz on February. Tehran's periodic naval maneuvers fall under close international scrutiny, as some Iranian officials have threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz. Iran regularly holds war games and has also been active in fighting piracy in the Gulf of Aden. Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. Tehran has dismissed the West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing those sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians’ national resolve to continue the path./end