Tehran, February 01: Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi has downplayed threats of a military strike against Tehran, saying that the Islamic Republic does not see the possibility of a military conflict in the region.
The Islamic Republic has always sponsored peace and tranquility for all nations and conveyed the message of friendship to all governments except the Israeli regime, Rahimi told reporters in the Omani capital of Muscat on Monday.
He dismissed as “illegal” the Western sanctions against Iran and emphasized that the restrictive measures by the United States and its Western allies will have no impact on Tehran’s principles and stance.
He also noted that the European Union’s embargo on oil imports from Iran would not affect the production and export of Iranian oil.
On December 31, 2011, US President Barack Obama signed into law new sanctions against Tehran, seeking to penalize countries importing Iran’s oil or doing transaction with the Central Bank of Iran (CBI).
During their latest meeting in Brussels on January 23, EU foreign ministers reached an agreement to ban oil imports from Iran, freeze the CBI assets within the bloc and ban the sales of diamonds, gold and other precious metals to the Islamic Republic.
The EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, claimed that the new sanctions are meant to bring Iran back to the negotiating table with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — Russia, China, France, Britain and the US — plus Germany (P5+1).
In a separate development, the Iranian vice president told a gathering of Iranian nationals residing in Oman that the Islamic Republic has resisted all bullying powers.
Iran has no concerns over the West’s pressure and sanctions as it enjoys a high position among regional countries, Rahimi added.
Despite the sanctions, Iran has succeeded to further progress in various scientific, cultural and economic spheres, he noted.
In a meeting with Omani Deputy Prime Minister Fahd bin Mahmud al-Said, the Iranian vice president warned that insecurity in the region would harm the entire regional people.
The Islamic Republic believes that security in the Middle East should be safeguarded by regional countries, he pointed out.
Rahimi said the Iranian nation will proceed with its strong resistance against bullying powers as it believes that free and justice-seeking nations will achieve the final victory.
He expressed Tehran’s readiness to promote relations with Muscat in all fields and called for a speedy implementation of agreements previously signed in this regard.
The top Iranian official also exchanged views with Oman’s Sultan Qaboos bin Said on the latest bilateral, regional and global issues.
The two sides also discussed joint cooperation on the transit of goods between Iran, Oman, Qatar, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and the Central and Eastern Asian states.
——Agencies