[The West”> believes that if we master nuclear technology, we will be transformed into a regional superpower and will dominate 17 Muslim countries in this neighbourhood, Mohsen Rezai, the secretary general of the State Expediency Council, told the paramilitary Bassij forces in the south-western city of Masjid Soleiman on Friday, according to the news agency IRNA.
Major General Rezai, who for years headed Irans elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and is close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that the West was trying to prevent Tehran from making industrial and technological progress.
We have reached a very important stage and we need to pay a price for making Iran powerful, Rezai said.
Rezai accused the United States of stirring up trouble in the oil-rich Khuzestan Province, where Masjid Soleiman is situated.
Khuzestan Province is one of the flashpoints between Iran and the Americans, and this is probably true of three or four other provinces that they are watching, Rezai said.
Khuzestan Province has been the scene of unrest and widespread protests by ethnic Arabs for more than a year. Iran has repeatedly accused Britain and United States of being behind the escalating protests and violence in the oil-rich province.
