In his weekly press conference on Monday in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said Saudi Arabia is responsible for barring Iranians from attending Hajj pilgrimage, adding “the Organization of Islamic Cooperation has in a way turned into a formal office for Saudi Arabia and for this reason, making complaints to the secretariat of the OIC does not seem to yield any results, and the Hajj issue continues to remain the major issue of difference in Iran and Saudi Arabia’s foreign policies.”
About the US State Department's annual report on global terrorist activity published Thursday, he said “it is void of any credibility because they have just drafted an ideological instruction without taking into account any of the most blatant realities.”
He went on to add, “the truth of the matter is that the Islamic Republic of Iran with more than 17,000 of its nationals lost to Western-backed terrorism is the biggest victim of terrorist attacks.”
“The Islamic Republic of Iran will continue to stress fighting against terrorism under its principled policies and the nuclear deal has no impact on the country’s macro policy,” he stressed.
About Airbus threatening to cancel its signed contracts with Iran due to pressures from the US government and Iran’s reaction to US violations of the nuclear deal he said, “our policy based on the general principles of the country’s foreign policy, is the pursuit of national interests. The nuclear deal violations will be looked into by Foreign Ministry’s high committee following up on the implementation of JCPOA.”
“Today, banking relations and various aspects of sanctions are underway as one of the priorities of the country’s foreign policies,” said Jaberi Ansari. “All decisions about the nuclear deal will be taken by senior authorities and the Foreign Ministry will be in charge of implementing them.”
In regard to Iran’s reaction to provocative policies of Saudi Arabia, he said “Saudi Arabia has been for years using terrorism as a tool to achieve its own political objectives. These moves, although apparently in service of a country like Saudi Arabia, are short-term and the spread of terrorist activities will finally involve the Saudi regime and other terrorist-backing countries.”
On regional issues, the Iranian diplomat maintained that the Islamic Republic supports any initiative to restore peace and stability to Afghanistan. He also referred to the Syrian situation, saying further solidarity and unity among the Syrian people and politicians will lead to further victory against the terrorists. Jaberi Ansari further called on political parties in Iraq to manage their differences through political dialogue.
The foreign ministry spokesman reaffirmed that the spread of crisis in Syria is threatening the country’s existence and it is the natural right of the Syrian government to lodge a complaint to international bodies.
MS
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