Pundit:

West trying to sideline Iran in Mideast issues

Rasa - Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has underlined that Iran must increase its strength in the face of arrogant powers, who are trying to rob the Iranian nation of its material and spiritual power.

News ID: 426094

Date: 27 December 2016 - 23:59

RNA - On Tuesday, the Leader made the remark during an address on the eve of the anniversary of large-scale pro-establishment demonstrations that took place throughout Iran on December 30, 2009. Ayatollah Khamenei also said that the hostilities and conspiracies directed against the Islamic Republic are a response to the country’s opposition to the hegemonic system in the world.

Muhammad Ali Carter, a journalist and political commentator from London, told Press TV’s Top 5 that the West is not willing to understand the fact that Iran is a superpower, which could be helpful in fighting terrorism and acting as a stabilizing factor in the Middle East.

“Iran is a Middle Eastern super power and of course is very heavily involved in everything going on in the region as it should do, but the fact is that countries from the West, which as well like to get involved in that region, very deeply refuse to listen to local powers like Iran,” Carter said on Tuesday.

“The West continues to see Iran as this evil enemy, which is not, when they should actually be speaking and communicating to the Iranians more and trying to understand how to fix problems of the region,” he added.

The Western powers “spend their time throwing insults and very bizarre anti-Iran rhetoric,” he stated.

The journalist also noted, “Iran has a lot of intelligence, it’s a very clever and stable country in a region, which is full of instability.” He added that the Islamic Republic has every right to defend itself, because it is surrounded by threats as a result of America’s foreign policy in the region.

Carter went on to say that Iran has proven that its strategy of countering terrorism in the region and countering sectarianism the region is successful.

Elsewhere, he said that the Iranian Leader’s “comments are particularly interesting because they come in time when the British Prime Minister Theresa May actually visited the [Persian] Gulf very recently and she said some very bizarre comments in regards to confronting Iran in the Persian Gulf.”

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