In an interview with Tehran based political analyst Payman Yazdani, correspondent of Moscow based EADaily discussed a range of issues including Iran-EU relations, the US influence on Iran-EU relations and ongoing developments in the Middle East.

Following is the full text of the interview:

Last year during your interview with an Italian political analyst, in which he opinionated that: “a weak EU cannot be a strong international player.” How do the Iranian political elites perceive EU? 

EU politically, economically and militarily is too dependent and subservient to the US to challenge the White House when it comes to Iran.  Only in the field of economy the EU as a successful model of regionalism was gradually turning into a major rival to the US, but Washington has decided to contain and weaken the EU by supporting the UK’s exit from the union, supporting rightist groups in Europe, creating tensions in the Europe neighboring regions like Middle East, Libya and threatening EU energy security by creating tensions in Persian Gulf and east Europe.
The leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ali Khamenei, has repeatedly pointed out that Asian countries should expand cooperation. In your opinion, has there been any progress in this direction? 

Recent good economic and trade cooperation between Iran and Central Asian countries, between Iran and Russia, China and Russia, Iran and India and Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq,  Iran and Turkey all are examples of good cooperation between the Asian countries despite all US efforts to avoid.
In your opinion, could the situation with Huawei be a forerunner to wider pressure on China from the West? And what is the view or perhaps position of Iran in this situation? 

As I have written in my recent article. China is a major economic rival for the US and is threatening and challenging the US hegemony. Washington is very seriously working on containing Beijing and decreasing its global influence by different ways such as threatening China’s energy security by creating tensions in Persian Gulf which 48 percent of China’s oil import as driving engine of the country’s economy passes through the Persian Gulf, by creating instability in Afghanistan and Pakistan and trying to spread the instability to central Asia to avoid success of China’s ‘one road-one belt’ project and also by creating tensions in China Sea. The US is resorting to any tool to contain China so Huawei case is also a good excuse and case to this end.
It is known that at present time Turkey has developed strong economic relations with the Islamic Republic. However, it is known that in a number of regional conflicts, Ankara and Tehran hold opposite viewpoints In addition to this, Turkey is a member state of NATO. Is there a possibility that such a situation between countries may move in the field of direct confrontation? 

Despite differences between Tehran and Ankara on some issues the good relations between two countries continue because of some reasons: 1- economic interdependency plays an important role because Turkey needs Iran’s energy and Iran needs Turkey to reach EU market 2-developments in the region driven by the US and its allies showed both Tehran and Ankara that they need to cooperate with each other to tackle common threats.
We see our countries cooperating quite successfully in Syria. In your opinion, how great is the potential for the growth of similar relations in a number of other countries with an ongoing crisis (for example, Afghanistan, Yemen, and potentially future conflicts in the Balkans)?

In long term the US in cooperation with Saudi Arabia as sponsor of extremism and terrorism intend to spread religious extremists to central Asia and Caucasus to contain Russia too, therefore any cooperation between Iran and Russia would be to the benefit of both countries and even the region.

Interview by Damir Nazarov

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“Flip-flop par excellence: one day US claims Iran on verge of collapse, the next we’re demonized as a ‘Great Power’ that threatens NATO,” the tweet said.

He was pointing to two different reports: the first, dating back to November 2018, said the senior officials in the Trump administration were convinced the Iranian government was vulnerable to collapse and the US economic sanctions could hasten the process. The second one quoted Pompeo during the 70th anniversary of NATO this week as saying that Iran is among the ‘great powers’ in the world.

Zarif went on to add that Pompeo and US President Trump “will make any contradictory claim that fits an occasion. In contrast, Iran is consistently responsible & peace-seeking.”

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Mujahid touched upon the recent meeting between Taliban’s representative Mullah Brardar, who is also the co-founder of the armed group, and the commander of the NATO troops in Afghanistan, saying that the release of the Taliban prisoners and the withdrawal of foreign troops were among the main issues discussed at the meeting.

The spokesman added Mullah Brardar had also called on the American side in the extraordinary meeting with the commander of the foreign troops in Afghanistan to lift the sanctions on the group, secure the release the Taliban prisoners held by Afghanistan government and resolve the issues through dialogue.

He added that in the meeting, the American side had called on the Taliban to help consolidate security and peace in Afghanistan and not to use the Afghanistan territory to threaten other countries.

Mujahid further said about the meeting between the head of the Taliban’s political office in Qatar Mullah Brardar with the commander of foreign troops in Afghanistan that the US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and two Qatari officials were also present in the meeting and that it took place somewhere in Doha other than the Taliban’s political office.

The Taliban spokesman also expressed satisfaction with the talks in Qatar, saying that no negative issues have been raised in the talks so far, but a final decision has not been made yet, and it is too early to be able to predict the outcome.

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