Kamal Kharrazi, the head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, made the remarks in an interview with the Al Jazeera news network published on Sunday.

“Targeting our security from neighboring countries will be met with a response to those countries and a direct response to Israel,” he warned.

Tehran has emphasized that it pursues a policy of improving relations with neighboring countries, while at the same time making it clear that the countries, which are normalizing their relations with Israel and allowing the occupying regime to establish a foothold in the region, are betraying the Palestinian cause and bringing instability to the region.

Kharrazi, however, said Israel is in a phase of weakness and US President Joe Biden’s support for the regime would fail to bring it back to the fore.

harrazi said Iran has carried out extensive military drills to demonstrate its capability to hit targets deep inside Israel in the event “our vital and sensitive facilities are targeted.”

During the interview, Kharrazi, a former foreign minister, also said Tehran calls for launching regional talks to be attended by important countries such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, and other states.

He noted that Qatar has made important proposals on holding dialog among regional countries and that Tehran has expressed its full readiness in this regard.

The sole solution to regional crises, according to the senior diplomat, is the formation of a regional dialog forum in order to find settlements to political and security disputes among regional countries.

Kharrazi also welcomed recent remarks by Saudi officials about extending a hand of friendship to Iran, saying Tehran is ready to enter into dialog with Riyadh in order to restore bilateral relations to normalcy.

He said Iran and Saudi Arabia are two important countries in the region and resolving their differences would lead to major changes in West Asia.

Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Iran in January 2016 after Iranian protesters, enraged by the Saudi execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, stormed its embassy in Tehran.

Riyadh did not change its overt confrontational foreign policy towards Tehran until 2020 when it began to show an inclination to fix bilateral ties. Since April 2021, Iraq has hosted several rounds of talks between the two powerful regional states.

Kharrazi also rejected allegations that Iran has intentions to make nuclear weapons, saying this is while the Islamic Republic possesses the technical capabilities, such as increasing the level of uranium enrichment from 20 percent to 60 percent.

Kharrazi dismissed any possibility of talks about “our missile program and our regional policies,” saying any negotiation on the two subjects would mean submission to the enemy.

Regarding the indirect negotiations with the United States to revive the 2015 Iran deal, he said it is difficult to conduct a direct dialog with Washington in light of a thick wall of mistrust due to hostile US policies toward the Islamic Republic.

He added that there are no guarantees that the US would continue to honor the Iran deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), if the deal is restored, and “this prevents any possible agreement.”

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IRAN NEWS ECONOMIC DESK

TEHRAN – Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade believes the national security depends on economic power and announced the readiness of the ministry for arrival of the big and capable companies into the social responsibilities.

Addressing the 5th International Conference of Industrial Management on Monday, Alireza Razm Hosseini pointed to the root culture of development, saying that type of approach of officials and executives in the country regarding the issue of development is effective in the all-out growth of the country.

He emphasized the attention to the update indicators of the world in the field of development, stipulating that the approach of officials and executives for reaching development, progress and development should be drastically changed, noting that the emphasis of the Holy Islam in the very field of development underscores this point.

Razm Hossein said that national security depends on economic power, adding that economic power depends on the inflation rate, growth of per capita production, and fair distribution of wealth among the people, adding that that fair distribution of wealth in fact indicates equal opportunities for generating the wealth and job.

He also said indicators of life expectancy, amount of cultural production, social security, providing infrastructures, communications and communication networks, and food security are of the other parameters for attaining economic power.

The minister also said that economic power will lead to protection of social and human assets, elites, public satisfaction and playing more roles in the region and the world.

Razm Hosseini added that the country has provided good infrastructures and to this end, the country should make the most of its human and social assets, and economic growth should be dynamic and to this end, the approaches should be changed.

He also urged the organizers of the conference to put on its agenda for its next session the Supreme Leader’s Statement on the Second Step of the Revolution.

The minister noted that the company is to take advantage of capacities and capabilities of 200 famous and successful companies for balanced development in the county and it is on the agenda.

Razm Hosseini reiterated that people’s livelihood is the priority of his ministry and it works for abundant distribution of goods in the market.

He said in recent months in the production sector, the country has witnessed growth in production of some commodities like home appliances and vehicles.

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IRAN NEWS ECONOMIC DESK

In his recent interview with Sobh Eghtesad Persian economy daily, a publication from Sokhan Goster which is the license-holder of IRAN NEWS, Dr. Sobahani underscored the significance of economic security in the national security of any country.

When he was asked about security in Iran which is emphasized every  where and his definition of security, he said that when one talks about security he may mean physical security like border security. He added that the current approach to security issue in the country is outdated and this approach has totally changed in the past four decades.

Dr. Sobhani added that in the past when one talked about security, all attentions were focused on defensive security with indicators like military power, and any country had good condition in military sector was considered as a country with high security.

He noted that in recent decades the definition of security has turned from defensive to economic one and countries are weighed based on their economic power than their military powers. He went on to say that in some articles, national security have been synonymous with economic security and some believe that national security is that economic security.

So those countries which enjoy high economic power and their people’s condition is defendable in terms of economy, enjoys more security, he added.

He reiterated those countries which have economic security have definitely national securities and in Iran, officials have paid attention to the economic security but how far they have progressed and been successful in order to say that it has guaranteed the national security is questionable.

On the factors of economic security, Dr. Sobhani said that economic security has essentially been based on two factors. He said the first factor is to provide and prepare welfare facilities in the country for the citizens, adding that economic policies should be in a way that people even in the farthest part of the country and in the borders feel that all facilities are more than their minimum needs and they become content with the economic condition as they support the condition and try for improving it.

Dr. Sobhani added that the second factor is country’s impact in the international communities and the world. He added, “Suppose one country has managed to satisfy its nation with domestic economic security and it enjoys favorable hegemony. It means other countries accept it and its words, and in accepting it, they do not feel superiority. Those countries which enjoy such a status beyond their borders can actually influence the international system in favor of themselves. If factors of domestic welfare and satisfaction as well as influencing international community are accompanied by their indexes, then we can say economic security exists.”

On finding a country in the Middle East with having both two factors together, Dr. Sobhani said that it is difficult to find one as you can see that the U.S. imposed sanctions and other big countries follow it because of their interests.

When asked why satisfaction index among Iranians is low no matter of their financial condition, he said that it is natural and man innately looks for more and no one can fight with this human nature.

He added, “The question is whether people who are in better economic condition are ready to pay heavy costs for more facilities. Complaining about the current condition does not necessarily mean that they are ready to interrupt current situation which may have heavy social and political costs. You can barely find people with good financial condition to risk unless they cannot earn their living. So they stage protests and pay for it because they have nothing to lose and their condition would not become worse than current condition. Of course what was said does not mean would happen. For example during the elections and during the conducted polls, people are asked who will win the election. Some names are raised and people are asked to whom they may vote. They name for example Mr. X but when they cast their votes, they vote for another candidate. Here there are one feeling and one performance. Mostly performance is criticized but it does not mean the condition is so bad that he is discontent in order to change it.

When Mr. Sobhani was asked on the performance of governments on economic security in Iran after the Islamic Revolution, he said that in terms of economic security, governments have not been successful. He added, “The reason for my belief is that the average inflation rate has been 19 to 19.30 percent from 1989 to 2016.It means every 5 years people’s purchase power has been halved. The average unemployment rate has been between 11.5 to 12 percent and the average annual per capita has been 6m tomans, it means 500,000 tomans monthly. These limited indicators show that people are struggling economically. If satisfaction towards economy is one of the economic security factors, the country does not get good mark. Every government tries to reap the results of its predecessor. Maybe we can say in some indexes, reformist government performed better. We should study the reason. During the reformist government except the first year, the oil price rose and did not fall and even during “Love and affection” government oil revenues jumped and the government had whopping oil incomes but it faced sanctions.

Dr. Sobhani noted that losing economic power has negative impact on the social security, adding that fall in purchase power makes people poorer and poverty makes room neither for personality nor religion. He went on to say that for this reason the number of crimes and felonies is on the rise in the country, adding that impacts of lack of economic security in the society are limitless.

On how the country can fortify the social security in the society, he said that no one can present solutions and to resolve problems in few years.

Dr. Sobhani noted that economic policies of all governments have been the same in Iran and today’s economy is the result of economic policies of the country in the past 30 years and if a policy does not bear fruit, it should be corrected but nobody is ready for it.

He added that mechanism should be designed in a way to provide people with their necessary needs and they should not be worried about health, education and jobs.

He also called for a change in the approach of banking system which is Iran’s economy Achilles heel. He said depositing money in banks and to live based on interests from their deposits will force no one to production as the Constitutions mentions economy should be pushed ahead through interest-less loans.

Dr Sobhani reiterated that economy in the Constitutions should replace the current economy and production should be encouraged in the society.

He also said that many educated people have been in the governments and exist in the country who have also educated abroad and they have good views but their views do not fit rent-seeking and un-productive economy.

He also admitted that one of the reasons that governments do not reform is that educational body of the country is omnipresent and they do whatever the educational system has taught them and their knowledge mostly does not useful for the national economy because reality of the economy is totally different with what they have learned, adding that un-productive private sector and defected university system should be blamed for the current economic condition.

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