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Saudi defense minister to make first visit to Iran

TEHRAN, March 10 (AFP) - Saudi Arabia's defense minister, Prince Sultan ibn Abdel Aziz, will make the first-ever visit by a Saudi defense chief to Iran in April, the Iranian defense ministry said Wednesday.

"The visit will help strengthen cooperation between the two nations and create an atmosphere of greater trust," ministry spokesman Keyvan Khosravi said, quoted by the official news agency IRNA.

The Saudi defense minister will bring a high-level military and political delegation for talks with Iranian officials, he said.

The spokesman also reiterated Tehran's opposition to the "massive and useless" US military presence in the region, calling it the "primary obstacle to friendly cooperation between Gulf nations."

He also accused US Defense Secretary William Cohen of trying to push problems between Israel and the Palestinians "onto other parts of the Middle East."

"This policy will no longer work," he said.

Cohen, who concluded a Gulf tour Wednesday, told both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia that they could purchase sophisticated AMRAAM "fire and forget" air-to-air missiles previously available only to NATO nations, in the face of mounting US concern over Iran's missile program.

The United Arab Emirates previously had won approval to buy them.

In visits to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, the UAE, Qatar and Kanjani and Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi visited Saudi Arabia last year.

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