BANDAR-ABBAS – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Iran is playing a leading role in providing and maintaining security in the Persian Gulf, noting it is "meaningless" to secure the waterway without Tehran's cooperation.

Ahmadinejad made the remarks in an address to the personnel of the Iranian Navy in Bandar-Abbas on the shores of the Persian Gulf on Saturday night.

He said all politicians around the world acknowledge this fact that Iran plays a major role on the international stage.

"Today, the Iranian nation plays an influential role in international equations," he added.

Commenting on Iran's history, Ahmadinejad said that the Iranian nation has never cast a greedy eye over other countries' properties.

The Iranian people have always sought to develop a culture of peace, he stated.

The presence of the Iranian Navy in international waters and provision of security for merchant ships is one of the glories of the Iranian nation, he said, adding that today the Iranian Navy has raised the flag of peace in international waters.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ahmadinejad described the Zionist regime's threats against the Islamic Republic as empty and said that the Iranian nation will do something to any aggressor that its name would be mentioned in the history ignominiously.

He went on to say that Iranians have never violated others' rights because they have always been seeking to promote friendship with other nations.

During his trip to Hormozgan Province, Ahmadinejad also inspected various parts of the Jamaran destroyer.

The Jamaran destroyer first set sail for the north of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden on October 9, 2010.

It has so far saved dozens of Iranian and foreign cargo ships from pirate attacks in the international waters.

The Jamaran was the first domestically manufactured destroyer. It can carry helicopters and is equipped with torpedoes. It is 94 meters long and weighs over 1,500 tons. The warship is capable of engaging in surface, air, and undersea warfare. (Agencies)