The books of history and religion, written whether by easterners or westerners, show cultural commonalities, and sometimes conflicts between us, said Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Underlining the years of cooperation between the two countries, the senior official thanked Italians for supporting the Milan branch of Iranian Islamic Azad University.
Hashemi also reviewed the joint projects run by Iran and Italy under his presidency in 1989-1997, and voiced content that a steel mill erected by Italians in Isfahan reportedly had exported thousands of tons of steel to Italy by last year.
Reminding the military contracts signed between Italy and the toppled monarchy of Iran, Hashemi regretted that Italians did not meet their commitments during the years of Saddam’s war on Iran.
When asked about the future of the Middle East, the chairman of the expediency council answered that the future of the region is very vague as the terrorists are heavily armed and even after the war instability is going to grip the war-stricken states.
Boasting Iran’s humanitarian contributions to the global community, Ayatollah Hashemi recounted that three million Afghan and Iraqi refugees were homed by Iran while Iran was in war with Saddam’s regime, while Europe announces a crisis when just thousands of war refugees head to the West.
In addition to eradicating terrorism and terror ideology, it is the responsibility of the international community to restore peace to the lives of millions of war victims in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, and the Islamic Republic of Iran would fully cooperate with the world for this cause, reiterated the former president of Iran.
The Italian senior official, for his part, voiced his deep respect toward Mr. Hashemi and reassured that many former Italian prime ministers have the same idea and feeling toward Mr. Hashemi as the one who has been very contributive in bridging between the two countries and strengthening the relations between Tehran and Rome.
Saying that Iran and Italy share a host of commonalities and have been enjoying years of good and historical relations, Renzi highlighted that culture has always been a shared ground between the two countries and plays a very important role in the future of the human societies.
Asked by Hashemi about Europe’s contradictory approach toward war refugees of the ME crises, Renzi replied that there are many disagreements between the 28 members of the EU, and unfortunately the war immigrants are treated as a threat for the security of the union.
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