Iran on Friday counterattacked US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's recent comments on its upcoming presidential elections, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"Iran is, beyond doubt, not moving in line with the imposed plans drafted by the United States for the region, believing that the regional nations are politically mature enough to decide their own fates," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi was quoted as saying.

Asefi's comments came in reaction to Rice's remarks in late May that Tehran is not in line with Washington's policies on the promotion of westernized democracy in the Middle East and the US picture of the upcoming Iranian elections is bleak due to vast disqualification of hopefuls.

"Her comments are not only undiplomatic since they are an interference in Iran's domestic affairs, but also not to the point due to her lack of knowledge about Iran," Asefi said.

Iran is to hold its 9th presidential elections on June 17. The country's election supervisory body, the Guardians Council, has approved eight people to run for the presidency.

The council at first tried to disqualify Vice President Mohsen Mehralizadeh and former Higher Education Minister Mostafa Moin due to their reformist politics, but it retracted the decision under the order of Supreme Leader Seyed Ali Khamenei.

The Guardians Council has rejected 89 women candidates and other reformists to stand in the elections.

Iran, a country exchanging hostility with the United States for 26 years, has been sharply criticizing the US plan to promote westernized democracy and economic reform in the Middle East as " serving its own interests".

Source: Xinhua