Bahram Ghasemi was speaking in his weekly press conference and covered diverse issues of the region, notably tense relations with Saudi Arabia, where he warned the kingdom of Saddam’s ultimate inglorious fate awaiting its rulers.
Ghasemi told reporters that Mr. Zarif’s meeting with Canadian counterpart had been part of a plan to bring the relations to normalcy with the country, the foundations of which were laid in a third country before New York meeting; “if both sides succeed in settling issues, a break in the status quo will be a possibility,” he told reporters. “A consulate in Canada is highly valuable for us with more than few hundred thousand Iranian expatriates of highly skilled and educated individuals; Canada also seeks to have an embassy in Tehran in political and regional grounds.”
On Saudi discontent on the Iran-Egyptian possible détente with Zairf’s meeting with Egyptian counterpart, Ghasemi said that the meeting was in line with Iran’s general line of foreign policy which cherishes regular contacts with the countries in the region to address developments and possible cooperation; “Saudis had been in the same vein as before in systematically thinking evil of Iran and trying misguidedly to counteract Iran’s influence; we see the reaction natural and inherent in the mindset of the kingdom as its rulers had been intransigent in their irresponsible conduct,” he said.
Almost a natural issue of the press conference, Syrian crisis, occupied an important place in Ghasemi’s address, where he said that ceasefire had been merely a tactic to buy time for terrorists and replenish their arms and logistics and that under such conditions, ceasefire would be abortive in advance. Elsewhere in his address, Ghasemi also returned to Saudi Arabian issue, this time on Mina incident of 2015 hajj rituals in a question whether Iranian officials had addressed the issue in New York; “we have severed relations with Saudi Arabia; so, only in international community would we voice our objections to the kingdom’s stark indifference and callousness about the fate of innocent hajj pilgrims; Mina had not been of a significance in the UNGA addresses, however, we advanced the issue in bilateral meetings with different envoys on the sidelines,” he told reporters.
Ghasemi downplayed the possibility of an ultimate result should Saudi brings the case of Iran’s interference in Yemen to the UN as official complaint; “in Yemen, they had been trespassing the international borders of a sovereign nation, killing the innocent people, with crimes still ongoing; the act would be viewed as mere shifting the blame from themselves in Yemen to find a way to justify their debacle in the country as leader of a coalition which have not achieved anything concrete in southern neighbor; we believe countries are wise enough not to be trapped by Saudi drastic measures,” he told the press. “Saudi rulers should see the prospects of worsening of the situation in the kingdom and inevitable popular unrest which would topple the government, a situation very similar to what happened to Saddam Hussein of Baathist Iraq. The history would teach lessons, but Saudi rulers should also learn.”
On the differences with Turkey, Ghasemi believed that no any two countries would fully align their policies in the modern political terrain; “the relations had been improved with Turkey following the aborted coup against the country’s democratically-elected government; more than differences, both countries share similarities and we should emphasize on these points to improve relations,” he concluded, however only after touching Iranian three islands in the Persian Gulf where Ghasemi condemned UAE’s empty and unfounded claims over the islands.
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