'Iran, West deadlock not on nuclear issue'

Prominent Egyptian journalist, Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, has said that the West's main problem with Iran is not over the nuclear issue.

The former Egyptian culture minister rejected a claim by Anthony Lake, a close aide of US president-elect, Barack Obama, that Arab states are not aware of “Iran's nuclear threat”, asserting instead that Iran does not pose a nuclear threat.

Western countries want to restrict Iran's role in the Middle East and do not want the country to increase its influence in the region, Heikal said in an interview with the Doha-based satellite television network Aljazeera.

The Egyptian journalist went on to say that Dennis Ross (US special envoy to the Middle East under former President Bill Clinton who is likely to resume the post in the Obama administration) is of the opinion that the US never wants Iran to be an influential country in the Middle East.

Iran has repeatedly made clear that it believes only regional solutions can solve the problems in the region. Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, recently said that external elements are the source of a rise in violence and insecurity in the Middle East region.

In the Aljazeera interview, Heikal also made clear his belief that the US presence in Iraq has little to do with security, adding that the US will have military bases in Iraq even after it withdraws its troops from that country because Washington wants to keep an eye on Iraq's oil resources.

Heikal served as culture minister during the tenure of former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.