"The hasty trip of Mike Mullen shows the deep worry regarding the fate of American forces stationed in the region," armed forces chief of staff General Hassan Firouzabadi said in a statement.

Calling for the withdrawal of US forces from the region, Firouzabadi said that "any kind of military operation will fail to have an effect on the Muslim peoples' revolution which is being done to get rid of American oppression."

He said the revolts rocking longstanding Western-backed regimes around the Arab world would result in the troops' "quick exit".

Mullen was in the Middle East last week on a tour during which he accused Iran of fomenting instability in the region, but said Tehran was not behind the popular protests in several regional countries.

"Iran, I still believe, is a country that continues to foment instability in the region, take advantage of every opportunity," Mullen, chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Qatar last Monday.

But "from my perspective that has not been the principal focus of what happened in Egypt or what happened in Bahrain or any of these other countries," he said, referring to popular protests rocking key US allies.

"Those are by and large internal issues, as opposed to issues fomented by some external forces," Mullen said, although "there's always concerns in this region with Iran, and certainly the US has them, as well as all the regional players."

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Israel successfully tests Arrow anti-missile system Knesset urges $1.4 billion Iron Dome buy Surface Combat Systems Center Tests Aegis BMD Capabilities Boeing And Northrop Grumman Submit Proposal For Missile Defense Competitive Contract Enhancing The Protection Of Rotary Aircraft Against Missiles JLENS Program Achieves Critical Milestone System Integration Test For SM-3 Kinetic Warhead Completed $7 bn UAE missile deal expected this spring Fire Scout Completes First Unmanned Test Flights On Littoral Combat Ship K-MAX Achieves Numerous Firsts During Recent Demo Flights Northrop Grumman Awarded UAS Common Architecture Working Group Contract AeroVironment Develops World's First Fully Operational Life-Size Hummingbird-Like Unmanned Aircraft for DARPA ONR Moves A Modular Space Communications Asset Into Unmanned Aircraft For Marines Northrop Grumman Next-Gen FBCB2 System Approved For Fielding Boeing To Demonstrate Aviation Command And Control Subsystem For US Marine Corps RC-12X Aircraft Provides Highly-Capable SIGINT Systems To Warfighter LockMart Receives Major Contract Modification For F-22 Raptor Sustainment Boeing Receives Second Option Of B-52 Engineering Sustainment Contract A Device Enables The Remote Explosion Of Improvised Land-Mines Boeing EA-18G Growlers Deployed by US Navy EADS 'evaluating' US Air Force tanker award data Britain may scrap Tornadoes to save $1.6B Libya arms embargo halts boom for Italy, Russia India hikes defence spending by 12 percent Japan, China agree to patch up ties Mullen Mideast trip shows US 'worry': Iran general US top military officer visits Gulf amid Arab revolts Taiwan cardinal eyes China-Vatican dialogue Scientists Build World's First Anti-Laser Yale scientists build 'anti-laser' 'Air laser' could find bombs at a distance ONR Achieves Milestone In Free Electron Laser Program