U.S. warns Iran to back down

Iran is 'ready for anything,' President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- A second U.S. aircraft carrier strike group now steaming toward the Middle East is Washington's way of warning Iran to back down in its attempts to dominate the region, a top U.S. diplomat said here Tuesday.
Nicholas Burns, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, ruled out direct negotiations with Iran and said a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran was "not possible" until Iran halts uranium enrichment.
"The Middle East isn't a region to be dominated by Iran. The Gulf isn't a body of water to be controlled by Iran. That's why we've seen the United States station two carrier battle groups in the region," Burns said in an address to the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center, an influential think-tank.
"Iran is going to have to understand that the United States will protect its interests if Iran seeks to confront us," Burns continued.
The United States is incapable of inflicting "serious damage" on Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday.
In an interview with Iranian state television, Ahmadinejad said Washington had not stepped up its campaign against Tehran, despite the standoff with the West over Iran's defiance of U.N. demands to halt uranium enrichment. The U.N. Security Council imposed limited sanctions on Iran last month.
"U.S. rhetoric against Iran has not increased," Ahmadinejad said. "In 2003, they openly threatened to attack Iran. Now they have indirectly made such threats."
He spoke with confidence over Iran's ability to withstand a strike. "The United States is unable to inflict serious damage on Iran," the president said.
Iran says its atomic program is aimed solely at generating energy, but the United States and some of its allies suspect it is geared toward making weapons. The U.N. imposed limited sanctions on Iran last month.
Conflict
Ahmadinejad accused the United States on Tuesday of stirring up conflict between rival Muslim sects to maintain U.S. influence in the Middle East.
"The U.S. intends to cause insecurity and dispute and weaken independent governments in the region to continue with its dominance over the Middle East and achieve its arrogant goals," Ahmadinejad said during a meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem.
"The U.S. and Zionist regime have a conspiracy to stir up conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in order to plunder the wealth of the regional nations," the president said, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, or IRNA.
Ahmadinejad said last week that Iran is "ready for anything" in its confrontation with the United States.
Iran conducted missile tests Monday, the first of five days of military maneuvers southeast of Tehran. The Islamic republic also barred 38 inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog -- the International Atomic Energy Agency, prompting fears that it was seeking to restrict access to its facilities.
"This is obviously not a sign of goodwill, nor a sign of willingness to cooperate with the international community," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei told reporters Tuesday.
Ali Larijani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, said Tuesday that the decision had been misinterpreted and that there had been no change in Iran's cooperation with the IAEA.
"The issue is not the way the media has reflected it," Larijani was reported as saying by IRNA.
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