TEHRAN, May 28: Iran’s supreme leader on Wednesday ruled out any compromise with the United States, accusing Washington of seeking to strip the Islamic republic of its values through a campaign of intimidation.

And in answer to US allegations that Iran was failing to combat Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said that certain members of the group under arrest could be put on trial in Iranian courts.

“The United States is pressuring Iran in order to make the Iranian government and nation give in,” state media quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying.

“Those who are intimidated by the enemy’s demands will retreat step by step and finally surrender. But nobody has the right to do so, and the nation will not allow it,” the all-powerful leader said in a meeting with MPs.

Khamenei’s comments come amid mounting US allegations that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons programme and is trying to undermine the US presence in Iraq through support of hardline Shia Muslim groups.

Also, Iran has been accused of sheltering top Al Qaeda members whom Washington accuses of links to the May 12 suicide bombings in Riyadh.

But Kharazi insisted Iran was serious in fighting the group, pointing out that several of its members were in Iranian custody.

He told a news conference that “those who should be sent back to their countries will be, and those who have committed acts against Iran will be tried in Iran itself”.

The minister dismissed allegations that certain elements of the Islamic regime, especially its hardline Revolutionary Guards and shadowy intelligence service, could be protecting fugitive Al Qaeda operatives.

“These organs answer to an elected government, and everyone in Iran takes the fight against Al Qaeda seriously,” he said at the end of the opening day of a ministerial meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

The string of allegations from senior US officials come amid reports that the Bush administration may embark on a new policy of trying to topple the Islamic regime, while at the same time stopping short of a military attack.—AFP