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Geneva (AFP) Feb 28, 2011 Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Monday that protests in Iran were manipulated and bore no semblance to the popular uprisings in the Arab world. "There is absolutely no comparison between what is happening in the countries in the region," he told journalists on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council. "My interpretation of what is happening is that few protests in Iran are manipulated protests while mass movements in the countries in the region are authentic, popular and people's movement. "There is a difference between an authentic move and a manipulated protest," he said. Asked about two opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi who, according to their websites had been detained by authorities, Salehi said he was "not very certain about it." "To the best of my acknowledge -- because I came to Geneva last night ... I didn't have the oportunity to listen to the news. If what you say is accurate then it must be arrested based on some allegations," said Salehi. Referring to Karroubi, the Iranian minister said that the arrest "must have come based on provocations of certain rules of law." Salehi, who addressed the Human Rights Council in the afternoon, also held his first bilateral meeting with EU chief diplomat chief Catherine Ashton on Monday. Iran is ready to cooperate on the nuclear issue but wants western powers to show good faith, he told Ashton during their meeting, Iranian state television said. "The Islamic Republic of Iran is always ready to cooperate ... in the realm of regulations and international laws. The condition is that there are signs of good faith and cooperation from the other party," he added, according to Iranian state television. Iran and world powers were unable to find an accord on the ways to regulate the Iranian nuclear programme during a January meeting in Istanbul. Following a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Ashton confirmed to media that she met with Salehi. "I took the opportunity to talk about the objectives of the discussions in Istanbul," she said, stressing that she had expressed her "disappointment that we were unable to make progress in Istanbul."
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