Tehran, Mar 21 : Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei used his new year's message today to slam the military intervention in Libya, back regional revolts, and accuse US President Barack Obama of lying.
"The US and Western (allies) claim they want to defend the people by carrying out military operations or by entering Libya... You did not come to defend the people, you've come after Libyan oil," Khamenei said in a live broadcast from the holy city of Mashhad.
"Iran utterly condemns the behaviour of the Libyan government against its people, the killings and pressure on people, and the bombing of its cities... but it (also) condemns the military action in Libya," he said.
Under a UN Security Council resolution, the United States, Britain and France on Saturday launched air strikes on Libyan air defence systems to impose a no-fly zone on the regime of strongman Muammar Gaddafi.
The Security Council passed a resolution on Thursday authorising the use of "all necessary measures" to protect civilians and impose the no-fly zone after Gaddafi's forces appeared on the verge of crushing the month-long rebellion.
Khamenei said that Islamic republic supports those who have rebelled against Gaddafi, but said the West was seeking a foothold in the north African nation to monitor the uprisings in neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia.
The all-powerful leader, delivering his yearly speech on the Persian new year, also expressed vehement support for "all regional uprisings," insisting that Iran did not distinguish between their Sunni Muslim or Shiite roots.
Iran "supports all the popular movements which are under the slogan of Islam and (seeking) freedom," he said, addressing the Shiite-led uprising in the Sunni-ruled kingdom of Bahrain.
"We don't distinguish between Gaza, Palestine, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen. We have supported Palestine for 32 years, and they are not Shiites. It is not an issue of Shiites and Sunnis... It is the protest of a nation against oppression," Khamenei said.
Tensions have heightened between Manama and Tehran over Iran's criticism of the Gulf state's bloody crackdown on Shiite-led pro-democracy protests, with the assistance of a Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council force.
Earlier today, Bahrain's King Hamad said his forces had managed to foil a "foreign plot being prepared over a period of 30, maybe 20 years" to target Gulf countries.
Khamenei said the regional uprisings signalled that a new Islamic movement was forming in the Middle East, and that it would "definitely become victorious."
The US and other Western countries have deplored the bloodshed in tiny but strategic Bahrain, which hosts the US Fifth Fleet, but Washington has accused Tehran of undermining peace in the Gulf by trying to advance its agenda.
Khamenei advised Washington to focus on "the Saudi tanks on Bahrain streets." He also accused Obama of "lying."
"The US president has sent a message that he supports (the Iranian people), he claims to be against dictatorship and a supporter of (regional) nations. But he is lying," he said, pointing out that Obama had supported ousted Egyptian and Tunisian leaders Hosni Mubarak and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. AFP
