"The Middle East is suffering from lack of localized models of democracy," said Ali-Akbar Velayati in the opening ceremony of the 6th general assembly of World Assembly of Ahl ul-Bait.
The former Iranian Foreign Minister lamented that totalitarian regimes were resisting recent democratic developments in the region, highlighting the situation in Iraq where he said despite the rich academic discourse on free thinking Islamic traditions, the state was not flourishing as the non-democratic rulers of the region are pressing against.
The president of the Center for Strategic Research of Iran’s Expediency Council warned about certain powers' efforts to provoke sectarian violence in the region saying that, “unfortunately, West, US and the Zionist regime manipulated the chaos in the Muslim world for their political purposes.”
The Iranian official added that the inexperienced rulers of certain regional states tried to take revenge on the resistance axis but they have failed and they will see the consequences.
Today, the resistance axis is stronger than the past and after the nuclear deal between Tehran and 5+1, Iran has more power to support it, Velayati asserted.
Kicked off in Tehran on Saturday morning, the current summit is to award outstanding articles and the participants are to meet with the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.