Larijani: Iran seeks friendly ties with neighbors
Gulf-Iran, Politics, 2/26/2007

Iran's Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani said on Monday that Iran has its own firm strategic principles, which are based on strengthening friendly ties with the neighboring states.

He said that Iran has never launched aggression on any country in the past, but has always been subject to aggression.

The SNSC secretary noted that Iran has never benefited from the continuing crises in the Middle East, adding that Iran should be recognized officially as a country seeking stability and peace in the region as well as the world.

"There may be some moves or rumors in the region, but our formal stance is that Iran has a constructive role in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Lebanon.

"We are attempting to create a common paradigm between the regional countries and world big states to facilitate solving the current problems," he added.

Dismissing the claims of big powers on their attempts towards democracy in the Middle East, he said that if they are really seeking democracy, sustainable peace and campaign against terrorism in the region, we will be among their first proponents.

Concerning the trend of developments in the country's nuclear issue, he said, "Given that Iran's nuclear policy is based on solving the issue through talks, they should not expect us to give up our principles.

"Though the proposal of the so called 5+1 group had many drawbacks, we approached it in a positive way. However, the expected outcome was not achieved due to the conditions set by them and interruption of talks on the issue." Larijani said that this is a good opportunity to use the past experience and avoid "hypocrisy," given that now Iranians have the required know-how to distinguish their own benefits.

"We take all conditions into consideration and center on what is beneficial to us," he added.

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