Mr. Zarif was speaking about a wide range of issues including Syrian crisis and Astana meeting later in January. Zarif reiterated Iran’s line of policy on Syria which championed a national unity dialogue which would hit on a tentative agreement on Syria and where only Syrian sides including the government and opposition groups negotiate the terms of the future system.
“This will be a guiding principle for Iran’s participation in Astana meeting, where Russia and Turkey will be also parties and will work to safeguard ceasefire in the country,” he told the meeting. “Astana round of Syrian talks would not reject other past efforts and meetings on Syrian crisis; all sides should contribute to Astana meeting success.”
Asked about his assessment of president-elect Donald Trump, Zarif believed only time would reveal the nature of Trumpian policy toward Iran; however, he held that Barack Obama had been equally dishonest to Iranians as well; on global development and new security order, FM believed that international constellations of countries no longer controlled the developments and security should be addressed in collective terms where security of one specific countries would not be provided without doing so in the second country; “extremism is a threat to all; collective action should address terrorism and violence; Russia and Iran have believed in this and given hands to bring security to Syria,” he said.
On hot issue of relations with Saudi Arabia, Javad Zarif rejected the permanent hostile conditions between two countries; “there was no rationale that Iran and Saudi Arabia should be in a constant state of enmity; even Iran would cooperate with Saudis in solving Syrian, Yemeni, and Bahraini deadlock; in Lebanon, both countries displayed some level of cooperation with an outcome being election of the president, a position left vacant for more than two years; however, we believe Saudis should understand the realities of the region and wisely eschew adding to the heat of this boiling pot of the region,” he suggested.
On future Iranian presidential election in May 207, Zarif believed Iranians had the chance of deciding for their own future; however, “apart from the election results, Iran’s foreign policy will continue; for its highly strategic situation in the region, Iran had been working to secure stability to the Middle East at large; we also believe international sanctions had been ineffectual in bending Iran’s national resolve which defeated global sanctions regime,” he concluded.
SH/82392400
Your Comment