Persian Gulf is part of Iran: Larijani

In an interview with the Tehran Persian language daily Hamshahri published on Saturday, Larijani stated that Iranians are very sensitive about the country’s boundaries in the course of regional developments.

Today those countries with no access to open seas do not enjoy economic and trade privileges, but access to the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman has provided Iran with easy access to the world, he noted.

From the Arvand river at the mouth of the Persian Gulf to the Strait of Hormuz there are eight countries with coastlines, with Iraq having the smallest coast of ten miles and Iran, with 635 miles has the biggest, and out of 130 small and large islands in the Persian Gulf, 25 belong to Iran, which are all of strategic importance for the country, he noted.

Moreover, oil and gas reserves, fishing, tourism, and trade opportunities have made the Persian Gulf unique for the country, he said.

The Persian Gulf is important for the U.S., Japan, and Europe due to its abundant energy resources such as oil and gas, but the significance of the waterway far outweighs these factors because parts of it belong to Iran.

Pointing to the last will of Peter the Great to Russian officials, in which he asked them to gain access to the Persian Gulf’s warm waters, the SNSC member said the presence of British and U.S. forces in the area throughout the twentieth century is an indication of the strategic importance of the Persian Gulf.

He said British and U.S. forces have been present in the area mostly to protect the balance of power in favor of Israel and this policy is maintained throughout the Middle East starting from North Africa to the Persian Gulf to guarantee the safe flow of oil from the waterway.

Larijani, who holds a Ph.D. in philosophy, went on to say that during the rule of the last shah of Iran, the colonial powers supported the anti-Arab Iranians but immediately after the Islamic Revolution they turned to anti-Iranian Arabs and this indicates that “sowing discord” is the most favored tool of the U.S.

“The meaning of peace, stability, and progress from the Americans’ point of view is different from what we think. Peace means the security of Israel, the interests of Israel, the dominance of Israel, and even the current U.S. policy of preemptive war has the same meaning,” he observed.

The former director of the IRIB television network argued that the U.S. neoconservatives are obsessed with the Cold War era and are trying to create an artificial cold war in the Middle East in which Iran is to play the role of the former Soviet Union and the Arab states are to be like the Eastern European countries with Iran trying to gain control over them.

MS/HG

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MNA