Iran accused France yesterday of adopting an “unfriendly” position in Tehran's nuclear row with the West, and said that the military base Paris was setting up in the Gulf would harm peace in the region.

The Foreign Ministry summoned the French Ambassador to Tehran, Bernard Poletti, in an apparent tit-for-tat response after Paris called in the Iranian envoy last week over anti-Israeli remarks made by its hardline President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“Iran expressed its objection to France's adopted negative view on Iran's nuclear work and also its backing of the Zionist regime Israel's activities,” the official IRNA news agency said. On Friday the French Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian Ambassador to Paris over a new verbal attack on Israel by Mr Ahmadinejad.

Mohammad Ali Hosseini, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, also criticised a deal that Paris signed with the United Arab Emirates to build France's first permanent military installation in the Gulf, just across the water from Iran.

The base, housing 400 to 500 personnel, will keep French forces within reach of sea lanes through which over a third of global oil shipments pass.

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