Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and Leader’s representative in the council Ali Shamkhani was meeting with Armenian Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan where he stressed that Tehran would strongly confront with any foreign intervention towards its defensive capabilities, particularly missile capabilities.
He pointed to extensive cooperation between Tehran and Yerevan, especially on defense and security issues and highlighted that, “the Islamic Republic of Iran’s policy toward its neighbors has always been good neighborliness, friendly ties and realization of capacities.”
Shamkhani also referred to Iran’s vast measures in fight against terrorism in Syria and Iraq and the influence the country has had on bringing stability and peace to region; “if growth of Takfiri terrorism was not contained timely, today the whole region would have been overcome by insecurity crisis,” he told the meeting.
Secretary of SNSC deemed negotiation and understanding a necessity in solving regional disputes and described prevention of militarization and violence a must for protecting security and stability; “creation or expansion of any kind of regional conflicts is what aliens and outsiders seek to increase their own presence and interference in countries in the region and to sell their arms; constant cooperation and vigilance is needed to avoid such manufactured crises.”
He highlighted dark history of western countries in supporting terrorism and abusing sanction to limit countries who have been victim of terrorism such as Iran and Syria. “Takfiri terrorists and armed groups backed intellectually and financially by some regional countries as well as Israel are two major threats to international security and unfortunately, coalitions formed on the paper have had no acceptable performance in containing these threats,” he said.
Armenian Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan for his part underlined the significance and special status of Iran in region and world and expressed willingness of his country to boost ties with the Islamic Republic. “We are against any form of conflict in region and among neighbors and hailing Iran’s constructive role in containing crises, we are ready to increase our bilateral ties with Tehran,” he emphasized.
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