Iran accuses UK, Turkey of conspiracy

A key aide to Iran's supreme leader claimed on Tuesday that Washington tasked Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey with directing regional developments against Iran's policies. “The US has given a role to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey to direct regional developments in a way that they move towards these countries' interests in line with US policies and contrary to Iran's policies,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's military adviser Maj. Gene. Yahya Rahim-Safavi told Iran's Fars News Agency (FNA) on Tuesday. "Owing to the fact that Iran's Islamic Revolution serves as a role model for the region and the world in the fight against the tyranny of rulers and arrogant powers, the US and its allies are attempting to prevent Tehran's further political influence in the region," he added, according to FNA. Iran sent several subtle indicators of their mounting unease with Turkey's announced intention to host NATO's early-warning radar system. The threats Iranian officials have made in the past few months were the latest example of bust-ups between Ankara and Tehran. In a sign of Iran's growing frustration, Hussein Ibrahim, the vice president of the Iranian parliamentary national security and foreign policy panel, said in an interview with the Iranian daily Shargh last month that it was Iran's "natural right" to target the missile defence shield system in Turkey in case of an attack, and “we will definitely resort to that.” Turkey pointedly ramped up its public warnings last month about Iran's threats, accompanied by private warnings to Iran delivered by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu to his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Salehi. Rahim-Safavi's remarks were the latest an Iranian official has made against Turkey and there were no immediate reports of whether the Iranian government had distanced itself from the statement. Senior Iranian official also said, according to some reports, the Qatar administration has given Turkey billions of dollars to destabilise Syria. In earlier remarks against Turkey by Iranian officials, Salehi told Davuto?lu that those statements reflect only officials' personal opinions and are not Iran's official position.