Salehi: Iran Serious In Intention To Improve Ties With S.Arabia

Tehran, Feb 6, IRNA – Iran is serious in its intention to improve relations with Saudi Arabia, hoping that both sides will try to revive the lost trust, head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali-Akbar Salehi said Wednesday night. “When I was appointed foreign minister some four years ago I said on my inauguration day that my top priorities… were having best relations with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the European Union,” said Salehi in a dinner ceremony of the Palestinian ambassador in the honor of the visiting new Saudi Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Iyad Madani. “I believe Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are three major countries in the region with special positions. Saudi Arabia is home to the Qibla (direction towards which Muslims perform their daily prayers) for 1.5 billion world Muslims; the birth place of our Prophet (P), and the land for which the hearts of all Muslims beat,” he said. “Iran, too, is highly significant Geo-politically and Turkey is great from the historical and many other points of the view, and these three countries’ cooperation will be highly important and beneficial,” added Salehi. He said that despite differences of opinion among the three countries, differences should not be permitted to lead to further distancing of them from one another, knowing that there are lots of points on which they can reach agreement about them. The AEOI chief expressed hope that Iran and Saudi Arabia would both try to revive the lost trust and reliability seriously, emphasizing that Iran is serious in its intention for improving relations with Saudi Arabia. He also asked the new OIC chief to play his important role in that respect. “That is because good relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia can be important and influential for the whole world,” he argued. Islamic World Challenges Elsewhere in his comments Salehi focused on the severe challenges with which the Islamic world is engaged today and the sensitive era we are living in today that is so decisive for the future of the region. “I hope the entire regional countries would realize these points before it will be too late, and mange to control what is regarded as shared threats against the whole region in collective cooperation,” he said. Salehi said that as the OIC secretary general rightly mentioned, the Islamic world is faced with a big threat today. “Some extremist groups present forged and false narrations about Islam and contribute to the spread of Islamophobia worldwide and it is time now for joint challenge against that trend,” he said. Iyad Madani, the new secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) arrived in Tehran on Tuesday night for meetings and talks with Iranian officials. He had meetings with President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Wednesday. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had earlier announced that discussions on bilateral cooperation, regional, and especially Islamic world developments, and particularly Palestine and Syria are the main axes of the new OIC chief’s talks with Iranian officials. In a meeting with the OIC Secretary General Iyad Ameen Madani in Tehran on Wednesday, President Rouhani stated that promotion of all-out ties with Muslim nations, particularly the neighboring countries, is among the foreign policy priorities of the incumbent Iranian administration. “The Muslim world has great expectations from the OIC. We should join hands and make efforts to satisfy such expectations,” he pointed out. The Iranian president further pointed to the role that the OIC secretariat can play in facilitating further interaction among the influential members of the organization, stating that all OIC member states should actively contribute to decisions being made by the Jeddah-based world body. Rouhani also made reference to Islamophobia and the extremist moves which serve the interests of the enemies of Islam, calling on the OIC to confront such attempts and present the real image of Islam to the world. He added that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation must seek to make the voice of Muslims heard, stop insults to the religious beliefs held by Muslim nations and spare no effort to liberate the occupied Palestinian lands. Madani, for his part, stressed Iran’s significant role in the settlement of the Muslim world disputes. He added that the OIC needs the backing of all Muslim nations and appreciates Iran’s generous support./end