Iranian Defense Minister Dismisses Gates' Claims as "Repeated Lies"

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi rejected the allegations raised by his former US counterpart Robert Gates who has blamed Iran for the recent rise in the US forces' death toll in Iraq, and called them as "repeated lies".
"The repeated lies and ridiculous claims made by the (former) US defense minister are meant to justify the wrong policies and measures taken when he was in office," Vahidi said on Saturday, referring to the claims raised by Gates against Iran in the last day of his post as the US defense minister.

He advised the US officials to review their policies and tactics in the region, stressing that Washington's wrong policies are the root cause of the failure of its plans in the region, specially in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The people of no country would ever tolerate presence of security mercenaries on their lands and Iraqi people are no exception to this fact," Vahidi added.

Earlier, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei had taken the US presence in Iraq responsible for the worsening of problems in the war-torn country and the region.

Speaking at a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani here in Tehran last week, Ayatollah Khamenei called the US interfering and appropriator presence in Iraq as source of problems in the country and in the region.

The Leader further stressed that in spite of such presence, events and current incidents indicated that the United States' Middle-East policies are weakening and nations should take advantage of this reality.