Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi has said that Tehran will not tolerate any aggression against its national interests.

Vahidi made the remarks in an interview with reporters in Tehran on Tuesday, September 6 in reference to the fact that Turkey has agreed to host an early warning radar as part of NATO’s missile defense system, which is ostensibly meant to counter an alleged ballistic missile threat from Iran.

Vahidi said, “We regard the presence of the Americans and the Westerners as troublesome, which would undermine security in Muslim countries and harm their interests.”

The Western countries have the blood of many Iraqi, Afghan, and Palestinian people on their hands, Vahidi stated, adding, “We do not regard their presence in any country as beneficial to Muslim countries.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Vahidi commented on French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s remarks on August 31 in which he said that Iran’s alleged attempts to build long-range missiles and nuclear weapons could lead unnamed countries to launch a pre-emptive attack on the country.

Such remarks are meant to shift focus from the atrocities that the West is committing in Libya and certain other parts of the world onto issues which have no basis in fact, the Iranian defense minister said.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Vahidi stated that the Islamic Republic of Iran is making efforts to indigenize security in the region with the aim of helping maintain regional security without the presence of foreign forces, Tehran Times reported.