Ahmadinejad calls for western navies to leave Gulf

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday called on NATO naval forces to withdraw from the Gulf, calling them a threat to security. Ahmadinejad was asked about the potential for conflict in the Gulf at the final press conference of his trip to New York for the annual UN General Assembly.  

"Any tool that can prevent clashes and potential conflict will be welcome. And I don't think there is any need for confrontation," he said.  

"But I think the best long term solution to this problem is for the foreign forces to leave the Persian Gulf. There is no need in the Persian Gulf for the presence of the NATO forces," the Iranian president told journalists. 

Iran is in a mounting diplomatic conflict with western nations over its nuclear program. The west accuses Iran of seeking a nuclear bomb. Ahmadinejad denies his country is trying to build an atomic weapon.  

The United States and European navies have stepped up their presence in the Gulf in recent years. The United States has a naval base in Bahrain and France opened a base in Abu Dhabi, within 250 kilometers of Iran's coastline, in 2009.