Ghazizadeh-Hashemi spoke to Iran’s English-language Press TV and Arabic-language Al-Alan news networks about his foreign policy priorities and how he would tackle the challenges facing the country in the international community if he wins the June 18 presidential election.
He said the biggest foreign policy challenge facing Iran is the rift and the misunderstandings that the Western states have created among the countries in the West Asia region, adding, “This would consume a lot of our energy to clear those misunderstandings away and normalize relations between regional governments.”
Referring to Iran’s troubled ties with some of the Persian Gulf kingdoms, Ghazizadeh-Hashemi said the Persian Gulf littoral countries should “reach a mutual understanding for having peaceful co-existence, something that necessitates for us to contribute to the interests of one another and not to let each other be threatened.”
“This means that we should not pose threats to neighbors and, in turn, they would not threaten us,” explained Ghazizadeh-Hashemi, adding that third countries should also be prevented from putting a neighbor’s interests at risk.
“This requires us to hold more negotiations with each other…we need to put common needs and the nations’ demands on the table and work together to resolve misunderstandings,” he added.
The candidate said Iran does not favor conflicts in the region, and that, “eventually, the confrontations in Yemen should have an ending.
“Iran is willing to help” bring an end to the Saudi-led war on Yemen, he said. “Given that Saudi Arabia has stepped forward itself and wants us to help them, our administration would definitely assist them in order for the Yemen issue to be resolved soon.”
On Vienna talks and US pressure policy
Elsewhere, he was asked for his view about the talks, underway in Vienne since early April, on a potential revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, whose fate has been in doubt for more than three years since the US under ex-President Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned it.
The talks in Vienna between Iran and the five remaining signatories to the agreement are meant to find a way to make the US remove the sanctions it posed on the Islamic Republic in the wake of its exit from the accord and return to compliance.
Despite criticizing Trump for his Iran policy, the new US administration has so far been dragging its feet and refused to take responsibility by lifting the sanctions.
Ghazizadeh-Hashemi says the US uses lengthy, fruitless negotiations as a “strategy” to make the demands of the other side “worn-out” and get it to gradually retreat from its positions.
He said the Americans would set the tactic aside only when they find the passage of time to their detriment, adding, “I’m certain the Americans will achieve a result with my administration; they will have to.”
Ghazizadeh-Hashemi said the Americans have been after regime change in Iran over the past 40 years but to no avail. “Even if they continue such behavior for another 40 years, they will achieve nothing.”
To neutralize America’s pressure, the candidate said, Iran should speak to the US “with the language of power,” which means “we are so powerful that you cannot do anything.”
He added that Iran should grow stronger in the area of economy, help strengthen the resistance front, isolate Israel, and work to set up an “anti-US club” on the world stage.
“The club of sanctions-hit countries should join hands and turn into a powerful,” among other things, he said.
RHM/PR