TEHRAN, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Iranian officials renewed the calls on Sunday for the departure of foreign forces from the region, saying foreigners are the cause of regional problems.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that the presence of foreign forces in any regional country is the root cause of more problems for the entire region, according to Press TV.
Rouhani made the remarks in a meeting with new Afghan Ambassador to Tehran Abdulghafour Lival.
"We are confident that the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan has not brought and will not bring security for the country and Afghan people," he said, adding that Washington only seeks to achieve its own goals by spreading insecurity in the region.
In the meeting, the new Afghan ambassador said his country attaches importance to bolstering cooperation with Iran.
Lival emphasized that Kabul would never allow any country to use its territory against Tehran.
Besides, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday reiterated Iran's position for the departure of foreign forces from the region, Tasnim news agency reported.
Zarif made the remarks in a meeting with Kuwait's Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah in Kuwait on Sunday.
Zarif urged cooperation among regional states, saying the outsiders will have to leave the region ultimately.
"We and you will live in this region, while the foreigners will be gone," Zarif said, calling for the expansion of "friendly and brotherly" relations with Kuwait.
On the day, Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, Navy Commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), said that foreign military presence in the Gulf brings insecurity and instability to the region.
Tangsiri stressed that deep waterways in the Gulf and the Sea of Oman are safe and that the Islamic Republic has always worked to establish security there.
"Today, we can establish security in the Gulf. Iran is the flag-bearer of establishing security," he noted.
The IRGC commander also said that seven countries to the south of the Gulf plus Iran are fully capable of establishing security.
He warned that "the foreigners would merely seek to convince regional countries that they need weapons."
"In fact, the United States and the United Kingdom want to insinuate that the region is insecure," he pointed out.
Iran has stressed that the military presence of foreigners will insecure the region and has urged the cooperation of regional states to safeguard the security of maritime transportation in the Gulf.
