More 9/11 claims from Iran

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TEHRAN, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Most people in the West believe the U.S. government had a hand in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman claimed.

Ramin Mehman-Parast, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said many U.S. allies are suspicious about the nature of the al-Qaida attacks, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reports.

"Many in the West blame the U.S. government in the occurrence of the Sept. 11 incident," he said.

U.S. delegates at the U.N. General Assembly in September walked out during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech when he made similar comments.

"Some segments within the U.S. government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime," the Iranian president said.

U.S. President Barack Obama in an interview with the BBC's Persian service said the Iranian president's statements were "hateful."

Nevertheless, the foreign minister spokesman said the U.S. government was using the terrorist attacks as a pretense to launch military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia.

"The U.S. government needs to allow for the clarification of ambiguities regarding the incident and to refrain from jumping into hasty conclusions," he added.

He didn't indicate the source of his information.