Élisabeth Guigou, Head of French National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee and Head of Iranian Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi met on Sunday as part of her Tehran visit.
Boroujerdi said that in the new atmosphere created after the nuclear deal between Iran and the west, opportunities had been ample to improve economic, political, and cultural ties, especially between parliaments of both countries. He then touched upon the most pressing issue of the region, namely, terrorism and extremism; “the growth of terrorism poses a global threat; dividing terrorism to ‘bad’ and ‘good’ and equipping ‘good’ terrorists with arms and financial sources and training by the US and its allies will only exacerbate the already cataclysmic conditions in the region and the world as well; the continuation of the crises in Yemen and Syria is hapless,” Boroujerdi told his French guest.
“US and Saudi interference in Syria and Yemen has not contributed in any positive way to bring stability to these countries; rather, every day, the plights of the citizens have escalated, with women and children being the major victims,” he contended. “Only political national dialogue by the engaged groups should decide on the future of Syrian people and end bloodshed and war,” he added.
Returning back to Iran-France relations, Boroujerdi emphasized upon cooperation on intelligence and security in joint fight against terrorism, and on economic, industrial and trade exchanges.
Ms. Elizabeth Guigou believed that her visit to Iran clearly indicated French strong will to improve relations with Iran; “we have many points of agreement in political, economic, and cultural fields; French National Assembly fully supports boosting ties with Iran,” she said.
Guigou highlighted the important and positive role played by the Islamic Republic of Iran in regional context and developments, believing that all countries in the region should provide political solutions to eliminate terrorism from political arena. She also said that recruitment of French youth cohort by the ISIL was disturbing; “the government and the parliament have been working to devise methods to prevent influx of young and neophyte converts to Syria,” she asserted.
Guigou also said that French industries would hail participation in Iran’s auto-making and aerospace sectors.
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