ISLAMABAD, Feb 8: Iran has blamed foreign intervention for instability in the region and called for a new security paradigm based on expulsion of foreign forces and regional cooperation.

“Foreign intervention is the cause of volatility in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq,” said Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mohammadi in a lecture on Iran’s Middle East Policy at the Institute of Strategic Studies here.

The three countries have been the worst victims of terrorism and were combating extremism inside their borders.

Mr Mohammadi said there was need for a new security strategy after four wars in the region in less than three decades.

He said that problems faced by the Muslim world had been created by powers that perceived Muslims as a ‘major strategic threat’.

“It is evident that the United States intends to make geographical changes in the Islamic world,” he said, adding that American designs were doomed to fail as did a similar plot hatched by the United Kingdom in the 20th century.

Muslim countries, he said, had become more “vigilant and awakened” and desired to defend their sovereignty. The Muslims, who constituted one-fourth of the world’s population and had a rich civilisation were averse to foreign interventions and instead wanted partnerships with the rest of the world. Their vision, he said, was an international system based on justice.

“Regional developments, he said, indicate that the era of unilateralism is over and the current developments in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine are signs of the fall of hegemony of the US and other western powers in the Middle East.”

He said his country had repeatedly called for immediate withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq and believed that such a move would make that country more secure.

Holding the US and the allies responsible for the predicament of Iraq, Mr Mohmmadi said that unfortunately foreign forces were pursuing their objectives instead of providing peace and security to the Iraqis.