By Vestnik Kavkaza
Today a visit to Iran by the State Duma Speaker, Sergei Naryshkin, has come to an end. “We stand against the policy of some Western countries which cause crises in various places of the world; we stand for following the norms of international law in relations between states and prohibition of interference in sovereign countries’ internal affairs,” Naryshkin stated in Tehran.
Meanwhile, the next round of the talks between Iran and 5+1 (Russia, the U.S.A., China, Germany, the UK and France) on the nuclear program will take place tomorrow. The date set for the final development of the agreements is November 24th.
Speaking about Russian-Iranian relations, Mehdi Sanei, the Ambassador of Iran to the RF, stated: “Iran and Russia have had good experience of cooperation in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Tajikistan’s example is well-known. The restoration of peace in Tajikistan is a successful result of Iranian-Russian cooperation. In general, there were no contradictions between Iran and Russia in the Caucasus and Central Asia.”
The ambassador believes that Iran and Russia have similar views in the Middle East: “We have great experience of working in the Middle East, I mean recent cooperation between Iran and Russia in Syria. First of all, Iran and Russia have similar views in the Middle East, on the way of providing stability and security in the Middle East. Both sides believe that the conflict is a result of a double standards policy provided in the Middle East.”
According to Sanei, the Arab Spring in different countries was perceived in the West differently: “In some countries revolutions were welcomed and supported; while in other countries they were not supported and on the contrary there were efforts to suppress them. The West was interested in the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya; but they treated the revolutions in Bahrain and Yemen quite differently. These double standards led to the situation which we can see today.
Sanei referred to Josef Nye, a respected writer and political scientist in the U.S., who wrote that even though many think that democracy is a priority for democratic countries, it should be admitted that still the main priority of foreign policies is self-interest. The ambassador thinks that the U.S. tries to spread its influence in the world, rather than democracy: “If human rights are important, they should be important in Syria, Bahrain and Yemen. How could they shout when people are killed in one country and keep silent when people are killed in a different country?”
