TEHRAN – Iran’s foreign minister said Monday that neither Iran nor SaudiArabia can be the dominant power in the Middle East and what’s needed mostis for countries in the Persian Gulf region to talk to each other — notabout each other.

Mohammad Javad Zarif said, “In an attempt to be the strongest in theregion, to exclude one another from the region, we have managed to destroythe region.”

He told the Council on Foreign Relations that there is “a dire need forchange” and “Iran is ready for it because we are big enough, old enough,mature enough to appreciate this reality.”

Zarif expressed hope that Iran’s neighbors, with help from othergovernments, can also appreciate the fact that “none of us can become thenew hegemon” in the region.

He called for a new “regional dialogue forum” that would include five GulfCooperation Council countries along with Iran, Iraq and Yemen. And he urgedthe others to embark with Tehran on a transformation of the Middle East.

Zarif’s comments followed the annual Arab League summit on April 15 whereSaudi Arabia used its position as host to push for a unified stance by the22-nation bloc against Iran, blaming Tehran for instability and meddling inthe region.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are locked in proxy conflicts in Syria and Yemen, andthey also back opposing groups in Lebanon, Bahrain and Iraq.

Zarif told an audience of several hundred at the Council on ForeignRelations that “our neighbors, particularly Saudi Arabia, want to create animpression that we are an existential threat against them.”