Member of the Faculty of the School of International Relations:

Increasing the defence capability of the country is an indispensable necessity

Rasa – Hujjat al-Islam Masjed-Jame’i referred to the necessity of investing in defense capabilities for Iran and said, “I wonder why some are skeptical of defense spending.”

News ID: 434483

Date: 30 October 2017 - 22:28

RNA – In an interview with Rasa News Agency at the 23rd Media Exhibition in Tehran, Hujjat al-Islam Mohammad Masjed-Jame’i stressed on the necessity and importance of supporting Iran’s defence capabilities and stated, “We, as country, are facing a sensitive geopolitical and political situation in the region and in the world and we need to be able to defend ourselves.”

A member of the faculty of the School of International Relations said that Iran is not like countries such as Slovenia, Argentina and Uganda, but rather that Iran located in an extremely important area of the world and noted, “Today, nowhere in the world has the same variety of security, political, social cultural and identity tensions as the Middle East but we face such tensions.”

He added, “Another point is that in this region, our neighbours are the second largest purchasers of weapons in the world and they buy large amounts of weapons, some of which are offensive weapons, and for this reason, our neighbours are not normal.”

Hujjat al-Islam Masjed-Jame’i said, “The unlimited purchases of weapons by our neighbours are very desirable for arms sellers and one country, France, tripled its arms sales from 2012 to 2015 and ten percent of the French labour force is directly or indirectly employed in the military industry. The ongoing tensions in the region go back to the economic interests of the countries which are selling weapons and it is only natural that they desire to sell more weapons.”

The Iranian cleric added, “Either from the national, rational, common or jurisprudential perspective, we are forced to plan and strengthen our defence industries.”

He added, “In every part of the world where there are two rival neighbouring countries, when one country sells weapons, the other neighbouring country criticizes the other, saying, ‘why are you disrupting the balance of the region’ but in the case of Iran, they explicitly say, ‘these weapons are against Iran’ and it is strange that no one objects.”

Hujjat al-Islam Masjed-Jame’i explained, “It does not matter whether they accept or reject this objection but it’s important that we protest and say to countries like France, the United States, the United Kingdom or even Germany, ‘for what reason do you sell arms to the countries of the region?’”

His Eminence said that Iran’s protest against the sale of weapons to the countries of the region can be a big problem and explained, “With attention to our inherent independence and self-reliance and the fact that nobody sells us weapons, this has led to us increasing our own ingenuity and resourcefulness and we have been forced to achieve a certain level of defence that provides us security and protection from our neighbours and this is our right.”

Hujjat al-Islam Masjed-Jame’i added, “It’s completely surprising that some people are skeptical about why defence work is being done and funds are being spent in this regard. The little that I know regarding the growth of defence technology in Iran, given its independence, compared to countries it is greater and this is necessary for us.”