Islamic Awakening or Arab Spring has occurred in the region despite all the claims that deny it, underpinned Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab-African Affairs, during his speech at a ceremony at Sharif University in Tehran on Monday supporting his statement with his own field findings during regional visits.
Amir-Abdollahian hailed how the ideas of the Islamic Revolution of 1979 are approved by the people of the region and contributed the depth of the discourse to late Leader of the revolution, Imam Khomeini, and Iran’s current Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
He called it a misinterpretation to describe Iran’s role in the region as interference and advised the foes to be more realistic.
The diplomat described the undergoing phenomenon of Islamic Awakening owed to discourse of the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
The uprising of the nations in the region is due to the influence of the Islamic Revolution upon the Islamic countries though later the enemies tried to reverse engineer it in alignment with their own interests, stated the senior Iranian diplomat.
He added that after enquiring the motivation of their uprising, the Egyptian youth, who managed the 2011 Tahrir Square Revolution, admitted they followed the role model of Iranian youth in the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
He continued that even he was told that the way Iranians stood for their nuclear rights inspired the Egyptians; so that the world powers were unable to bend the will of the Iranian nation.
We use our influence in the region to serve the interests of the Islamic world and Muslims, reassured Amir-Abdollahian.
He highlighted Iran may provide other countries with advice but would never interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries.
When he was asked about the details of the Vienna talks, the deputy FM responded that ‘the talks were to examine the latest developments in Syria and Iran demanded the presence of Oman, Lebanon, and Iraq as they had played a constructive role in Syria over the past five years and could be part of the solution to the crisis.’
The first thing that Iran clarified in the meetings was that the talks were supposed to let Syrians decide for their country and the gathering was not intended to decide on behalf of Syrians, it was held to let those who supported terrorists in the past and are still supporting them amend their behavior and stop backing the extremists, Amir-Abdollahian stressed.
He continued that ‘while we all agree upon a free election, we have to bear in mind that a free election is impossible without complete ceasefire, border security, and distinguishing of oppositions from terrorists.’
‘We are proud to re-state our stance toward the Syrian crisis, as we backed the nation and legal government of the Arab country since very early, and never let an inappropriate tradition be established in the region to let terrorists topple a legal regime,’ underlined Amir-Abdollahian.
It is a shame upon the international order that some countries take advantage of the dirty instrument of terrorism in reaching their interests, regretted the diplomat.
The Iranian diplomat lamented that the Friday attacks to Paris were the direct results of those policies proving that instrumental approach to terrorism is wrong.
‘The solution that the Islamic Republic of Iran provided for the Syrian crisis,’ according to Amir-Abdollahian, ‘is that those countries who are feeding the terrorist in Syria stop their support and correct their conduct.’
‘We firmly believe that if the regional and cross-regional supporters of the terrorists stop their supports, halt their arms supply, and abandon their belief in the change of regime in Syria with terrorists, the Syrians are able to expel the terrorists out of their country,’ reiterated the Iranian deputy FM.
‘To us, till the end of his legal presidential term, Assad is the authentic president of Syria and nobody is allowed to doubt his presidency,’ reassured Amir-Abdollahian.
He asserted that, according to Iranian Foreign Ministry, the talks are not still that successful to lead to a unanimous word at the end of the sittings but Iran has still kept patient to let Europeans agree upon stop to bloodsheds to facilitate an atmosphere for a democratic election.
It has been five years of resistance against terrorists, hence the output of the talks, surely, should provide the interests of Syrian people and government, along with Hezbollah’s who have been relentlessly warring with terrorists, emphasized Amir-Abdollahian.
He said that the resistance front has born heavy losses and the talks must bolster the resistance front to secure peace and stability in the region; the objective of Iran and its allies.
When questioned about Iran diplomats sharing the same table with the US ones about Syria, he said that the attendance of Iranian delegation was to guarantee that nobody decides for Syria but Syrians.
‘It is the art of our diplomacy to manage those negative players in Syria so that the interests of Syrian people are secured,’ he said adding that, ‘we are there to safeguard the rights of Syrian, Iraqi and Lebanese people who have been suffering for more than five years.’
Upon a question on the latest news about Roknabadi, the missed Iranian diplomat in Mina tragedy of September 24, Amir-Abdollahian added that 17 Iranian citizens are still missing and DNA samples of them have been sent to the KSA and even family members will be sent to Saudi Arabia to let Saudis take DNA samples themselves, and among those 17 Iranians is Mr. Roknabadi.
He said that witnesses have reported that they have taken him alive to an ambulance and he has been alive after the stampede and ‘we are determined to know the fact about him.’
While we continue our interrogation about the case of Mr. Roknabadi, we still keep in mind other alternative scenarios, asserted Amir-Abdollahian.
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