Ali Larijani met Finland’s President Mr. Sauli Niinistö Wednesday evening to discuss bilateral ties as well as the situation in the region. Mr. Larijani believed Wahhabist ideology had been the father of all diverse and petty types of extremism and terrorism, to which contributed intervention by foreign powers and the militarism they supported in the region.
“No less important is a considerable amount of accord the Zionist regime have with this terrorist groups which bolstered their position in Iraq and Syria, providing direct and indirect support as arms and intelligence,” Mr. Larijani told the Finnish president. “Wahhabism is a deviant and extremist reading of the Islamic scriptures and has become the subject of condemnation by the more moderate strands of Sunni Islam during its history.”
On Syrian crisis, Parliament speaker believed political solution would best serve the situation in securing stability; however, Iran’s position of supporting diplomatic efforts had fiercely opposed by foreign countries and their proxies to advance their own version of solution, with disastrous results for Syria and the region.
Larijani then turned to Iran-Finland relations where signing of new agreements would improve trade; “environment and banking provides both countries grounds of cooperation; the latter however would be possible when restriction on Iran’s banking sector become alleviated,” he briefly said.
Mr. Sauli Niinistö for his part believed that the situation in the Middle East and Libya was far from satisfying and terrorism roamed the region freely, with no certain solution on the horizon in the short term.
Niinistö also highlighted grounds for bilateral cooperation as clean energy, environment, and efficient energy consumption; “there is ample opportunities for improvement of ties, to which 4 agreements singed provide testimony,” he told the meeting, welcoming possibilities of broader trade and relations with Iran.
SH/3807270