Tabnak – Facing increasing pressures by the United States to change its domestic and foreign policies, Iran sees security multilateralism as a way for consolidating its regional and international stance. In this vein, Tehran is building upon its favorable relations with the Eastern powers to better withstand the Western pressures.
Within the context of this new approach, senior security officials from Iran, Russia, China, India and Afghanistan attended a meeting in Tehran on Wednesday to explore ways of promoting peace and the fight against terrorism in the region.
Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani hosted Wednesday’s meeting dubbed ‘Regional Security Dialogue,’ which was joined by his counterparts from Russia, China, India and Afghanistan, Nikolai Patrushev, Dang Jing Wing, Ajit Doval, and Hamdullah Mohib, respectively.
Speaking at the event, Shamkhani called for closer security and intelligence cooperation among the participating nations towards the enhancement of the ongoing fight against terrorism in the region. Regional states, he said, need to take security matters into their own hands and help prevent foreign intervention in the region.
The meeting came only four days after a terrorist attack targeted a military parade in the southern Iranian city of Ahvaz, leaving scores of casualties. Commenting on the tragedy, Shamkhani said the terror attack once again laid bare the “double-standard attitude” adopted by certain states, which claim to be on the frontline of the fight on terror.
He censured the “instrumentalization” of terrorism as well as the financial, political, logistical and ideological support for terror groups as examples of such double-standard polices.
On the sidelines of the forum, Shamkhani held separate meetings with some of his counterparts, trying to attach bilateral security efforts with the partner states to those of multilateral nature, which had been earlier discussed among the five attending countries.
In a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Iran’s top security official warned Israel against keeping up its strikes on positions of the Syrian army and its allies in support of terror groups, saying the regime will be given a firm response if it fails to stop such acts of aggression.
In pursuit of a lasting crisis in Syria, the Zionist regime has been targeting positions of the Syrian army and the allied forces fighting terrorism, said Shamkhani, warning the regime of a response that will make it regret its actions if it refuses to stop its attacks.
The Russian official, for his part, hailed Iran’s initiative to hold a security meeting, warning that inaction against “unilateral” and “dangerous” US measures could help the outbreak of global crises similar to those gripping Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
Separately on Thursday, Shamkhani held talks with his Chinese counterpart, Dang Jing Wing. The Iranian security official described terrorism as a threat to international peace and security, emphasizing that close cooperation between regional countries would cut the flow of financial aid by certain extra-regional states to terrorists.
The Chinese official, for his part, appreciated Iran’s effective role in battling terrorism and extremism. He further stressed that restoring stability to Syria is a prerequisite to lasting peace in the Middle East.
