On Sunday, Javad Zarif, the Foreign Minister and Lubomír Zaorálek, his Czech Republican counterpart attended a joint press conference. Mr. Zaorálek leads a delegation of tradesman and business moguls to Tehran amid the new wave of European delegations arriving in Tehran.
Zarif told the conference that his Czech Republican counterpart had a hectic timetable, with many political and economic meetings in Tehran as well as Isfahan, where he had a session with private sector activists in Isfahan. “Mr. Zaorálek will be received by Iran’s government officials beginning on Monday,” Zarif added.
“We welcome the Czech Republican delegation visit to Iran; it is a new chapter in Iran-Czech Republic relations; we predict more improved relations with expanded economic relations and a political opening; the relations will be forward-looking, since Iranian and Czech tradesmen, businessmen, and academicians know each other since long,” Zarif told the press. “With over a quarter of a century of political relations, Iran and Czech Republic would invest hope in more facilitated trade and political relations, which especially after removal of sanctions against Iran, would find new grounds for flourishing,” he added.
Touching still a different story, Foreign Minister Zarif turned to Iran and terrorism, an issue much debated domestically as well as internationally; “the Islamic Republic of Iran had demonstrated its unremitting fight against terrorism, violence, and extremism,” he emphasized, critiquing US policies in the region as fueling violence and extremism through its allies’ direct and indirect support of sectarian violence, and about which no one better than US Secretary of State Mr. Kerry knew well. “We recommend them to abandon attempts to blandish their own pressure groups at home and to come a novel understanding of the dire situation in the region, and act according to realities on the field to wisely avoid plunging the region into yet deeper crisis,” Zarif proposed.
On the recent surge of refugees seeking peace beyond their native borders of North Africa and Middle East into Europe, which he described it as ‘horrible,’ Zarif denounced the inhumane conduct of the EU countries facing the wave of refugees who “seek shelter and peace and escape from war, terrorism, and violence.”
“The EU countries have been too impatient on the prospect of the millions of refugees surging their countries; the Islamic Republic of Iran had been hosting since three decades, millions of refugees from its neighbors with patience and due respect for the refugees; time has come for cooperation of all countries to address the crisis through abandoning petty political short-sightedness,” Zarif told the press.
Still touching upon another issue but related to the leitmotif of the terrorism, Javad Zarif said that in Syria, Islamic Republic of Iran had come up with solutions to the 4 years of crisis in the country; “we have as a priority respect to public will in setting their own destiny, and emphasize upon fighting terrorism to prevent death of civilians and helping the country find its way toward development,” he asserted. “We believed that a Syrian-Syrian negotiation should end the violence with announcing a national conciliation, and a government should be formed where all parties participate; we hope that the international community comes to this reality that supporting extremism would only shake the foundations of societies in the region,” he told the press.
Asked about recent visit by Saudi Arabian King Salman to US, Zarif denied to comment on the issue, generally stating that “we would not comment in an interfering manner on others’ bilateral relations; however, we would suggest our neighbors to answer the Islamic Republic of Iran’s call to peace and stability and denounce policies which only bring the region with violence and insecurity; our neighbors should see clearly the realities, and learn lessons of their past errors of judgement, to open a new chapter.”
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