Tehran, January 31: Iran’s Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani says Tehran will not remain indifferent to US mischief in the region if Washington tries to cause problems for regional countries.
In a meeting with Indonesian Parliament Speaker Marzouqi Ali on Monday, Larijani said the US seeks to make mischief in the region as it is unhappy with regional developments and does not see revolutions in Muslim countries to its benefit.
The US President Barack Obama signed into law new sanctions against Iran’s oil and financial sectors on December 31, 2011, to ban other countries from importing Iran’s oil or transacting with its Central Bank. On January 23, European Union followed suit by enforcing new sanctions on Iran which aim to ban the country’s crude imports by the EU.
In reaction to the West’s hostile measures, Iranian officials have threatened that Tehran will respond to sanctions in various ways, including closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz through which an average daily amount of 15-17 million barrels of crude oil passes.
“The Strait of Hormuz is a region of peace and Iran has protected its peace for centuries and will continue to do so in order to maintain calm in it,” Larijani stated.
The Indonesian parliament speaker said for his part that any form of tension in the Middle East should be resolved through peaceful means.
Larijani left Tehran to attend the 7th General Assembly of the Islamic Inter-Parliamentary Union (IIPU) in the city of Palembang, Indonesia, on Sunday.
The two-day conference focuses on the Islamic Awakening, Palestine’s membership in the United Nations, modern technologies, counterterrorism, and sustainable development as well as the peaceful use of nuclear energy in the Middle East.
Parliament speakers from Malaysia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Sudan, Qatar and Cameroon are among the participants of the event.
——Agencies