Ayatollah Rafsanjani:

US should compensate past mistakes prior to thaw in ties

Rasa - Chairman of the Expediency Council Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Wednesday that the US pursued hostility toward Iran and should compensate for its past prior to thaw in ties.

News ID: 3326

Date: 10 September 2015 - 12:32

RNA - Rafsanjani made the remarks in a meeting with visiting Austrian President Heinz Fischer and accompanying delegation.

Rafsanjani said that Austria is moderate and independent European government in terms of politics and economy.

Immediately after clinching the nuclear deal between Iran and G5+1, the Austrian president has paid a visit to Iran which indicates to what extent the Austrian government cares for justice and international peace.

Referring to Iran’s peaceful and principled policy at different historical junctures mainly after the Iraqi-imposed war 1980-1988, he said that during the critical period the world governments changed their policy and sided with towards Iran and left Iraq alone and the then United Nations secretary-general introduced Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as aggressor.

Iraq attacked Kuwaiti kingdom to plunder Kuwaiti oil wealth and again repeated its mistakes which led to Saddam toppling, he said.

World public opinion indicates they are happy with the nuclear deal between Iran and G5+1 and called both sides to remain committed to implement context of the deal, Rafsanjani said.

Both sides should prevent the meddling of domestic and foreign hardliners and should remain committed to their pledges respectively, Rafsanjani said.

On the future of relations between Iran and the US, Rafsanjani said the US administration should adopt a fair policy based on mutual respect and admit to its mistakes in the past and compensate for.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to broaden cooperation and relations with all the countries mainly with Europe, he said.

Given deplorable status of people in Syria, Libya, Palestine, Yemen, Iraq and other countries involved in campaign against terrorism, he said to deal with deterioration of the humanitarian crisis requires collective cooperation of all countries away from regional prejudice, Rafsanjani said.

The root cause of all insecurities and terrors in the world is despotism and colonialism, he said.

Expressing regret over the supports made by some countries to terrorists, he said they should not assume that through backing terrorists they can attain their goals, these countries only make a big hurdle for the region and they should be assured that they will pay for their measures as terrorists recruit from the angry and disappointed youth which are quite widespread in the world.

Referring to the failed experience of occupation of Afghanistan by NATO under pretext to fight with terrorism and eradication of drug narcotics, Rafsanjani said they failed to attain their goals, but the volume of drug narcotics increased ten folds and Taliban also gained more power.

Europe for many years made use of cheap human resources and their huge natural resources of under-developed countries and now it is their turn to compensate, he said.

Austrian president for his part expressed pleasure with nuclear deal struck in Vienna on July 14 and said the Austrian government attached importance to such deal and believes that the deal prepared the ground for expansion of all-out cooperation on various fields as well as fight with international terrorism.

Austria gives priority to expansion of cooperation based on mutual respect with others such as with the Islamic Republic of Iran, Austrian president said.

European countries have reached the conclusion that world’s problems should be resolved through dialogue and there is no room for military action, he said.

Expressing satisfaction over his visit to Iran and meeting with the chairman of the expediency council, the Austrian president described negotiations with Iranian officials fruitful.

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