Manama, Bahrain - Iran's speaker of parliament Ali Larijani, in an interview published in Bahrain on Wednesday, criticized US policies on the Middle East conflict and the situation in Iraq.

"The West needs to reconsider what they say. The top US diplomat Condoleezza Rice, during the Israeli aggression against Lebanon which lasted 33 days, described the war as 'the birth pangs of a new Middle East'," Larijani was quoted as saying by Al Wasat.

"As a woman who did not try the experience of pregnancy she seems to not have known that a birth needs longer time than that."

Larijani, who is on a two-day official visit to Bahrain, also told the newspaper that Iran had no pre-conditions for Iranian-Arab dialogue and no quarrel with any Muslim or non-Muslim country in the region, except Israel.

"Israel has a problem and that problem is that they have wronged the Palestinians," he said.

The former Iranian chief nuclear negotiator defended his country's support for the Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah movements saying they were freedom fighters not terrorists.

"In Lebanon, America and Europe as well as some countries in the region, supported Israel during the (2006 Israel-Hezbollah) war and failed. Later they went and abetted the Lebanese forces against each other and failed. So who is the real supporter of chaos and terror movements?" (dpa)