Iran's future is connected with its rockets, not with negotiations, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said today, adding that if Iran approaches the negotiating process without defensive might, then it will have to retreat under pressure from any weak country.
"Those who say that Iran's future is in negotiations, not in rockets, are ignorant, or traitors,'' RIA Novosti cites him as saying, with reference to Reuters.
"I am a supporter of the strengthening of the missile power of the country and negotiations as a tool of international cooperation,'' the Iranian leader expressed his viewpoint.
Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN Vitaly Churkin said that Russia didn't believe that the conducted launches of ballistic missiles by Iran violated Resolution 2231 of the UN Security Council, adopted in support of the agreement on the country's nuclear program, which is why new sanctions should not be imposed against the country.
However, the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany proposed that the UN Security Council re-examine the matter of test launches of ballistic missiles by Iran on March 8-9th and discuss countermeasures. A correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza interviewed senior researcher of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Sazhin about this issue.
According to him, the issue of missile launches is complicated due to the political situation in Iran.
"Two main groups oppose each other there, the so-called fundamentalists and reformers. The embodiment of the latter, not the leader, but the personification, is President Hassan Rouhani and his politics. The elections to the Parliament and the Council of Experts that took place on February 26th were won by the reformers. And this fact upset the balance there. It is easier for Iran's Supreme leader Ali Khamenei to manage when there is a balance of various forces, which allows him to manipulate them. Now the balance is disturbed. Therefore, in recent years, especially after elections, Ayatollah Khamenei supports fundamentalists in order to restore the balance," the orientalist said.
The expert also noted that "tests of missiles pursue political goals." "First of all, fundamentalists and the Guard Corps are interested in them, as the entire missile program, starting from the development work up to production of missile technology, is supervised the IRGC. Moreover, it is under its full control. I don't know whether it was necessary to carry out these tests from the technical and development viewpoints, but it seems that this is more of a political act to show that the fundamentalists have the power to solve many problems, as well as show the authority of President Rouhani and his team, because the missiles still remain a priority of Iranian policy," the orientalist said.
