New war in region would be extremely costly: Iran FM

TEHRAN, Aug. 8 (MNA) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says that the imposition of a new war in the Middle East region would come at a high cost for the West.

“The imposition of war and the creation of conflicts in the region are no longer easy. The region has proven this over the past 10 years. This is no longer costless,” Mottaki said at a joint press conference with Lebanese Foreign Minister Ali Shami in Tehran on Sunday.

Through the imposition of several wars over the past three decades, the West has been seeking to drive a wedge between regional countries and intensify animosity, the Iranian foreign minister stated.

Afterwards, the Western powers benefited from selling weaponry to fight those wars and also reaped the profit of the reconstruction programs they conducted in the war-stricken areas, he added.

He said that he believes there might be a potential for another conflict in the region but stated that whether that potential becomes a reality is up to regional countries.

To avert a new war, “the first step is to foil their plots… and the second step is to send clear signals that the imposition of a new war would cause irreparable damage for them,” Mottaki noted.

On Israel’s recent attack on Lebanon, Mottaki said Iran strongly condemns the atrocity and added that the Lebanese government has a legitimate right to defend its sovereignty.

The Lebanese foreign minister criticized the United Nations troops deployed in southern Lebanon for their hesitation to act in a timely manner to avert the attack.

During a meeting with Mottaki before the press conference, Shami expressed his gratitude toward the Islamic Republic of Iran for supporting Lebanon’s Islamic resistance movement Hezbollah.

However, he criticized the international community’s double-standard policy toward Lebanon.