Tehran-Moscow Focus On Strategic Co-op: Envoy

Tehran, Jan 8, IRNA – Iran’s Ambassador to Russia Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi said that Tehran and Moscow are currently focusing on the policy of strategic cooperation. In an interview with 'Iran' newspaper published Sunday, Sajjadi said that Russia and its policies today are different from the former USSR and its ideological principles. Now Moscow is seeking cooperation with the West because it believes that in absence of such a cooperation it would be unable to achieve economic development, Sajjadi added. After the collapse of the former USSR, Russian leaders have been intolerant of any kind of actions which might mar Moscow’s friendly ties with the West because they fear this might damage their economic development plans, he noted. The ambassador rejected what the newspaper described as the “public belief that the Russian foreign policy is an opportunist one” meaning that Moscow will forget partners like Iran and Syria any time it might receive good proposals from the US or Europe, reiterating that the general principle governing the international foreign policy arena is that all countries seek only their own benefits. As a basic rule, any country which forgets its own national interest, would lose its credibility, Sajjadi stressed. He also said that Iran has never had any firm and long-standing strategic alliance with any country including Russia and therefore when a crisis appears, any of the two countries would seek its own interest./end