Tehran:The Foreign Minister, staff and officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as Iranian ambassadors and senior diplomats serving abroad met with the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Syed Ali Khamenei.
At this meeting, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution described the assumption that the country’s problems can be solved by negotiations or relationship with the U.S. ‘an evident mistake’ and added: “The U.S. has fundamental issues with the essence of the Islamic establishment. Moreover, many countries in Africa, Asia or Latin America have relations with the U.S., and yet they are facing plenty of problems.”
Referring to the deeply-rooted hostility the U.S. practices against the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khamenei reiterated: “The American officials seek the position and status they once enjoyed in Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution and they will not be content with less than that.”
He regarded the United States’ opposition to the nuclear capability, high enrichment power, and the presence of Iran in the region, as a result of their deep animosity against the Islamic Republic’s elements of sovereignty, adding: “The presence of Iran in the region reassures power and security of Iran, and is part of the strategic backdrop of the country; that is why the enemies oppose it.”
The leader of the Islamic Revolution referred to the repeated mention of unreliability of the US by Iranian officials and stated: “I have always been insisting that we cannot trust the words or even signatures of the U.S. authorities. Hence, negotiating with the US is useless.”
The leader of the Islamic Revolution regarded activation of unexploited or not properly-exploited capacities in the country as important and added: “Negotiations with Europe can go on; but we must not linger, waiting for the European pack. Meanwhile multiple necessary tasks within the country must be carried out.”
The leader of the Islamic Revolution called development of multilateral and particularly bilateral relations, urging Iranian diplomats to expand ties with regional coalitions and stated: “Iranian ambassadors and representatives in other countries must completely master the potentials and capabilities of the nation and the country.”
He referred to relations with scientists, non-state political figures and economic activists of other countries as popular methods of diplomacy in the world and went on to say: “through these methods, the range of the activities of the foreign policies department can be expanded.”
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution further called field power a backing for practicing diplomacy and asserted: “it is important to turn every element of power into some political and economic achievement.”
According to the leader of the Islamic Revolution, the necessary conditions for the representatives of diplomacy include ‘having a strong and enduring spirit, hope for the future, and benefiting from a quest for justice.’ Ayatollah Khamenei held: The main and critical goal of diplomacy is to safeguard national interests. Interaction and opposition are only two of the many means to safeguard national interests.” His Eminence added: The national interests are derived from principle policies and values of the establishment and the diplomacy department have the duty to provide and safeguard national interests.
The Leader of the revolution hailed President Hassan Rouhani’s recent remarks in his visit to Europe and said: “The remarks made by the President in his recent trip to Europe stating that, ‘if Iran’s oil export is blocked, no other country is region can export oil either,’ are important remarks that represent the approach and policies of the establishment. The duty of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to strictly pursue stances taken by the President.”
The Supreme Leader slammed any bid to portray ideologies as contrary to national interests, adding: Some—erroneously—talk about the necessity of separating diplomacy from ideology; whereas, there is nothing wrong with ideological diplomacy. Inculcating [in public opinion] that there exists a contradiction between ideology and national interests is wrong and illogical,” said Ayatollah Khamenei, citing examples of practice of politics based on ideology elsewhere in the world: “U.S. officials repeatedly mention “American Values” in their speeches—which represents their ideology, derived from the U.S. Declaration of Independence. In European countries, too, ideological views rule over their political behavior and activities.”
Finally Ayatollah Khamenei described the main goal of the Islamic Republic as protecting national interest of Iran and asserted: “The goal of establishing the Islamic Republic is to safeguard national interests, independence, freedom, social justice as well as national power and security. [IRI] Ideology seeks to provide and protect national interests and is thus considered a nation’s identity.”