While welcoming this initiative, he said, “we hope that these talks will lead to a political solution between the two parties and Venezuela will be able to improve economic situation and livelihood of its people as soon as possible.”

Mousavi pointed to the harmful effects of intervention of some countries in Venezuela’s domestic affairs and added, “unfortunately, the United States has put the people of Venezuela under a collective punishment by blocking and looting its financial resources. For this reason, it is necessary for the US government to relinquish economic terrorism and illegal behaviors to improve livelihood condition of Venezuelan people.”

About two days ago, some media outlets had revealed the trip of Venezuela’s government representatives and opposition to Norway for examining possible options on the recent developments in this country.

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The top Iranian diplomat added that the US president’s costly and wrong support for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could have repercussions. “It’s Netanyahu Firsters always making the wrong choice in his service—at expense of all else—and expecting different results,” he continued.

A day before Israeli general elections on which the US administration designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization, Zarif described the US move as a gift to Benjamin Netanyahu from Donald Trump to secure hawkish prime minister’s victory in the votes.

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According to the official website of Iranian Leader ‘khamenei.ir’, in the meeting, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to the ideological, cultural and historical convergence among the Iranian and Iraqi nation and stressed “the relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iraq is beyond simple ties between two neighboring countries and the Iranian nation and state consider the progress and prosperity of the Iraqi nation as part of their own interests; however, contrary to their verbal remarks, the US officials assume the democracy and the current assembly of political activists in Iraq as detrimental to themselves. Therefore the Iraqi government should take actions so that U.S. troops will leave Iraq as soon as possible.”

Appreciating the wise and plausible positions taken by Mr. Adil Abdul-Mahdi with respect to the matters in Iraq and the region, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution referred to human capacities of Iraq and held “among [numerous] human resources of Iraq are its youth who proved their potentials in countering the ISIS sedition; and that was a historic event.”

Ayatollah Khamenei also named the scientists and scholars of Iraq as another asset of Iraq and went on to say “at the early stages of its presence in Iraq, the US assassinated many of the Iraqi scientists; because they understood the importance of this valuable asset.”

Emphasizing on the fact that human assets and rich mineral resources in Iraq have made this country the most influential country of the Arab world, he stated “the US officials and their followers in the region are against the current democratic establishment in Iraq as well as the officials and the chief leaders and regard them as offensive to their own interests.”

Stressing that if the Iraqi government and officials followed the US, the US would have no problems with Iraq, he added “the current government and parliament in Iraq and the political figures are not what the US’s desires; as a result, they plot for removing them from the political scene of Iraq.”

The Iran’s Leader mentioned that what the US and Saudi officials say in words about Iraq contradict their real intentions and held “at a time when the ISIS occupied Mosul, they provided the terrorists with money, arms, and equipment; and now that Iraq has defeated ISIL, they pretend they seek friendship with Iraq.”

Ayatollah Khamenei referred to the remarks of the Iraqi Prime Minister about the remainder of ISIL in Iraq and maintained “thorough awareness is required; because if they notice the slightest weakness from the Iraqi government and nation, they will start to commit crimes again.”

The Leader of the Revolution regarded the US’s military presence in the countries of the region as detrimental to the countries and the nations and addressed the Iraqi Prime Minister by stressing that, “you should take necessary measures so that the US will withdraw its troops from Iraq as soon as possible; because, in any country where the US maintained an enduring military presence, the process of expelling them became more complicated and problematic.

He further asserted that the US’s goals go beyond mere military presence, and said “they seek long-term presence and interests as well as forming a government like the military states that were formed during the early times of the occupation of Iraq.”

Ayatollah Khamenei went on to refer to the influence of scientific advances on Iraq’s development and added, “based on experience, I believe scientific progress in Iraq will pave the ground for permanent security in various areas.”

The Leader finally described increased relations with marja’iyah [the clergy] as useful and effective.

For his part, Adil Abdul-Mahdi, the Iraqi Prime Minister, expressed his gratitude for this meeting and held “the Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation have always been with the Iraqi government and nation in difficult times, the most recent case being Iraq’s victory over the ISIL which was realized with the support of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

The prime minister of Iraq stressed that despite the defeating of ISIL, its elements are still present in Iraq and added “nevertheless, today the Iraqi people live in a secure and stable situation.”

Referring to President Hassan Rouhani’s recent trip to Baghdad as well as today’s meetings in Tehran, Abdul-Mahdi stated “as a result of the negotiations, we have reached good agreements [with our Iranian counterparts] for building railways, establishing industrial parks, developing commercial relations, transportation, and dredging Arvand river.”

He concluded “the relations between Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran are special and we have announced that we will never join the US’s anti-Iran sanctions.”

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