U.S and Israeli worry about Iran's influence in Middle East: ex-diplomat

Ramin Mehmanparast, also a former ambassador to Poland, said in an interview with ILNA published on Saturday that US and Israeli officials feel that their plans for the region have no result.

Referring to the recent incidents to Mahan Air passenger plane, the ex-diplomat added “In order to keep the Islamic Republic of Iran away from the region, they do not even hesitate to threaten our passenger planes.”

Former Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said that they shaped the biggest anti-human terrorist movement in our region; we will not forget the crimes committed by Daesh group (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria.

Mehmanparast pointed to the next presidential election and confirmed “US presidential election is fast approaching, and Trump is not in a strong position due to his failed policies in the regional and domestic sectors, including the fight against coronavirus, as well as the racist debate that he and his friends have supported.”

He added that so Washington is trying to divert the public opinion from realities.

Iran's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Kazem Gharibabadi said on Friday that threatening ordinary people, including children and women, to achieve political gains is the dirtiest kind of politics that will surely fail.

Mahan Air passenger plane was en route to Beirut, Lebanon when it was threatened by two military jets. The pilot of the Iranian plane says when he was talking to the pilots of the fighter jets to ask them to keep distance they had said that they were American.

On Friday, Iran's foreign ministry said the protest had been lodged with the International Civil Aviation Organization - a UN agency - and the Swiss embassy in Tehran that handles US interests in Iran since ties were cut in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

END