“Americans are known for making unwise decisions, but I advise them to use the little brain they have and not to step on a landmine, so they would avoid being confined to a wheelchair,” Speaker of Iranian Parliament Ali Larijani said in reaction to US’ military threats against Iran in an in interview with Lebanese Al-Mayadeen that was published on Friday.
He also revealed the details of his meeting with a prince of a Persian Gulf state before the start of the Syrian crisis, and the Emir’s speculation about the fall of the Syrian government in two weeks.
He said he had met with the Emir of a small Persian Gulf state before the start of the Syrian crisis and asked him about their invovelemtn in some of the regional countries.
“I asked him why they were supporting the opposition and some terrorist groups in some countries, especially in Syria…and he told me that there would soon be a radical change,” Larijani said.
“He told me to wait for two weeks and they would be praying at the Umayyad Mosque (the Great Mosque of Damascus)…they failed to do that. They also wanted to do many things in Lebanon. They came to Beirut. [Israel] also reached the gates of Beirut, but Hezbollah managed to push them back,” he added.
Larijani noted that Iran's relations with the Arab countries in general are good and went on to add that "two or three Arab countries cause us problems, and they used to do it before. We have good relations with Algeria, Lebanon and the Persian Gulf countries. Our relations are good and we have no problem with them, but the Saudis, after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, followed a wrong path.”
Elsewhere, Larijani maintained that Iran will continue to implement the policy of reducing budget dependency on oil revenues.
“They thought they could reduce our oil exports to zero in October, but they could not do so ... We passed the tests and overcame the challenges in this matter ... During the rule of Shah, Iran’s population was 30 million, while the oil exports were four million barrels; but today we are 80 million and we export two million barrels of oil. How did we manage to stand on our own feet? We reduced our dependency on oil revenues. One of our policies is to reduce the budget dependency on oil revenues,” Larijani added.
MNA/4530806
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