Mehdi Sanai: "I hope in 2015 President Putin will visit Iran"
Tomorrow Russian Parliamentary Speaker Sergei Naryshkin is going to pay a visit to Iran. In Tehran, he is going to meet with the chairman of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran Ali Larijani as well as chairman of the Assembly for determining the appropriateness of decisions, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Russia and Iran have recently signed a number of documents to expand cooperation in the sphere of peaceful nuclear energy, which opens the possibility of building eight nuclear units in Iran. In addition, a contract was signed in order to allow the construction of two new blocks at the Bushehr atomic power plant.
Meanwhile, another round of full-length negotiations between the "Six" international mediators (UK, Germany, China, Russia, USA, France) and Iran is going to be held in Vienna next week. The parties are expected to develop an agreement on a comprehensive settlement of the issue concerning the Iranian nuclear programme. However, as stated by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, any document which may be agreed at the meeting will be approved, but not signed, and further measures will be needed to make it legally binding.
Iranian Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanai spoke in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza about Russian-Iranian relations, cooperation in the energy sector and the upcoming visit by the chairman of the State Duma, Sergei Naryshkin, to Tehran.
- Mr. Ambassador, the resolution of the problem concerning sanctions against Iran is underway. In this regard, many Russian political experts have expressed fears that Iran could change its vector to a more pro-Western one. Does this view have a proper foundation?
- The fact that the issue of Iran's nuclear program is an artificially-created problem is quite obvious. Therefore, we hope that the process will end positively and the programme will be approved by the Security Council and the IAEA, and the situation will change for the better. Iran's nuclear program is only a question of the foreign policy of Iran. Regardless of whether the parties come to an agreement on the nuclear program or not, Iran adheres to a principled position on expansion of its relations with Russia, China and India. We think that this cooperation is beneficial for the region and for stability and security in the world too. There is a very clear example. The document has just been signed on the construction of new reactors in Bushehr. This means that Iran has its own independent approach, its basic position on cooperation with Russia.
- What are the expectations in Tehran concerning Sergei Naryshkin's visit to Iran?
- We have, thank God, relations in all areas of development. Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai] Patrushev has already visited Tehran, now Sergey Naryshkin is expected. And I really hope that Mr. Putin will visit Iran in 2015, because Mr. Rouhani during a summit of the Caspian states' leaders visited Russia. I hope of course that the visit of Mr. Putin will take place too.
However, parliamentary cooperation is also very important. An Iranian parliamentary group has recently visited Moscow. They were also in Chechnya and were very pleased that there is stability in the republic because, when you listen from afar about Chechnya, we can think differently. I hope that the visit of Mr. Naryshkin to Tehran at the same time speaks of the importance of cooperation and the importance of the current collaboration between the two states. This visit, I hope, will strengthen our relationship.
