On Sunday, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei received Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama who heads a delegation to Tehran. Leader said that hegemonic powers always had actively opposed cordiality between Iran and African countries; however, Iran had a positive view of the African countries and welcomed relations with them; “they [hegemonic powers] are the major source of terrorism, regional conflict, and have fed extremism to destabilize the region; we provide the generally feasible alternative of unity of ‘independent nations' to improve mutual ties; imperialist powers see their interests in fueling tensions in different parts of the world; terrorist factions in Africa are the mercenaries fostered by UK, the US, and the Zionist regime,” emphasized the Leader.
On the suffering of Syrian people, Leader of the Islamic Revolution posed the rhetoric question of how large amounts of weapons and money found way to terrorists in Syria; “Iran’s principled policy is to support peace in Syrian crisis; we have worked so that Syrian people would benefit the most; no power should prescribe solutions from the outside Syria and the Europeans and Americans are not qualified to decide on behalf of Syrian nation for their future,” Ayatollah Khamenei asserted. “An effective solution to similar suffering of nations such as Palestinian question is to become united and détente to improve cooperation.”
Leader of the Islamic Revolution then turned to anti-colonialist popular leaders in Africa; “these brave leaders upheld the African identity across the world” he said.
John Dramani Mahama for his part, believed Leader’s remarks provided incentives for building a better world and attain peace; “suffering and pains of Palestinian people have been a major concern for many countries and we should all unite to address their rights in the Occupied Territories; on Syria, Iran’s role has been one of a constructive diplomacy and fighting terrorism, and we hope Iran’s role could help solve Syrian crisis,” he emphasized.
Mr. Mahama also expressed gratitude for Iran’s humanitarian help to people of Ghana; “on behalf of African people, we appreciate Iran’s supportive role in helping emancipationist movements across the continent especially sympathy with South African anti-apartheid movement,” he concluded a meeting where Iran’s President Rouhani was also attending.
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