to report «iusnews»; Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has said that there is no obstacle to development of commercial, and economic relations with Algeria.
Raisi made the remarks in an interview with Elikhbaria channel of Algeria which was held on the sidelines of the 7th Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) Summit in Algeria.
The full text of President Raisi's remarks is as follows:
Anchor: Mr. President, it is an honor for us to host you on Elikhbaria channel. Your Excellency spoke in detail about Palestine in your speech at the GECF summit. If possible, please give the reason for this level of attention towards the Palestinian issue.
President Raisi: In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful. I am very happy that I am the guest of the friendly and brotherly country of Algeria for these two days and I have to thank the Algerian government for the successful holding of the GECF Summit. Undoubtedly, the convergence, consensus and thinking among the gas exporting countries can be effective for the economic future of the region.
At the beginning of this meeting, due to the great importance and sensitivity of the issue of Palestine and Gaza, I started my speech by addressing this issue, because today the issue of Palestine is not only the issue of the Islamic world but also the issue of the world of humanity, and all free people in the world have become sensitive to this issue.
What is happening today in Gaza under the title of crime against humanity, war crime, genocide, food and medicine blockade of women and children, and destruction of people's houses, is not compatible with any international law and covenant.
The child-killing Zionist regime has committed these horrible crimes for 75 years by occupying the Palestinian land, destroying houses, destroying agricultural lands, killing women and children, and depriving the Palestinians of all their rights by imprisoning and torturing the youth of this land.
Today, after 75 years, while the world's attention has been drawn to Gaza and the hearts of all the people of the world have been wounded by this amount of crime, unfortunately, the United States is providing arms, financial and media support to the Zionist regime with all its might, and the silence of the international forums is even more unfortunate. It is the indifference of human rights organisations and the ineffectiveness of the United Nations and its Security Council towards these crimes.
Today, before the eyes of the whole world, the biggest crime against humanity is taking place, and according to statistics, at least 30 thousand people, including oppressed and defenceless women and children of Gaza, have been martyred.
In a situation where a criminal regime has taken cruelty and crime against an oppressed people to the extreme, and instead of punishing the criminal, the United States and other powers put pressure on the oppressed in double oppression, these events should definitely be the basis for changing the world order from an unjust and oppressive system to a fairer one.
Since the beginning of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the Islamic Republic of Iran has supported the oppressed in the world as one of the basic principles of its foreign policy, and today the clearest manifestation of oppression can be seen in Palestine.
Anchor: Mr. President, if possible, please indicate the role of countries like Algeria in stopping this war, which are also non-permanent members of the UN Security Council.
President Raisi: I believe that member countries of the UN Security Council, the President and all members and components of this council have a double responsibility and should play a role in this field. I am sure that Algeria can play a role in the Security Council and be the voice of the oppressed and powerful people of Palestine, considering the good positions it has on the issue of Palestine.
Anchor: Despite the extensive efforts of the Islamic Republic of Iran to stop the war and lift the blockade of Gaza, as well as prevent the spread of the war to the region, some accuse Iran of trying to expand this war. If possible, please give your opinion in this regard.
President Raisi: We believe that it is the Americans and the British who seek to expand the scope of the war. In a situation where the people of the world are fed up with the amount of crime in Gaza, an American officer sets himself on fire in front of the Zionist embassy in protest against these crimes. When the people of the UK and other European countries, with huge marches in the streets, shout to stop the attacks on the people of Gaza and stop supporting the Zionist regime, but no effective arrangements are made and these governments do not want to hear the voices of their people and the people of the world, it means that they seek to expand the scope of the war.
Today, not only the people of the region but also the people of the world are fed up with the oppression of the Zionist regime, and I think that if the situation continues like this, the anger of the youth of all nations, both in America and UK and in other countries on different continents, will be manifested at one point and in another form.
Anchor: Considering the shared positions between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Algeria regarding the Palestinian issue and the need to stop the crimes and attacks in Gaza, how can the membership capacity of these two countries in regional and international organizations and agreements be used to establish peace in the region?
President Raisi: We are trying to use the capacity of all regional, extra-regional and international unions and organizations in order to create peace, security and progress of nations. We believe that if today a group called the usurping regime and the fake regime of Israel is making the region and the world sick of its oppression and injustice, all countries should unite against it and their first issue should be to remove this cancerous tumor from the region. We are sure that the pure blood of the Palestinian martyrs and the oppressed will mark the end of the Zionist regime.
Anchor: If possible, please express your opinion regarding the bilateral relations between Iran and Algeria in various political and economic fields.
President Raisi: Relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Algeria have been very good, especially after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. What is in the minds of the Iranian people about the government and nation of Algeria is a brave, resistant and anti-colonial nation that has sacrificed many martyrs in defense of the land and to expel the colonialists from its soil.
We believe that the good political relations between the two countries should be reflected in practice, and one of the very good fields is the economic and commercial fields.
Anchor: You talked about the economic sector, which is very important. Regarding the capacities of the two countries and the strategic and forward-looking view, what economic projects do you have in mind for mutual cooperation in the future?
President Raisi: I think that among the projects that we can advance with Algeria, cooperation in the field of energy and in the field of trade, especially sea transportation, money and banking should be developed, which can be planned.
Anchor: Mr. President, we talked about bilateral relations, as well as Iran's relations with Arab countries, what is the obstacle to your rapprochement with some countries?
President Raisi: We have no problem with the Arab countries and despite the enemy's efforts to create Iranophobia in the Arab countries and the region, today, thank God, we have good relations with the Arab countries.
The enemy started two tasks, first, creating Iranophobia and second, trying to bring Arab and Islamic countries closer to the Zionist regime or normalize relations. In my opinion, the enemy and especially the Americans failed in both tasks.
On the other hand, the enemy tried to normalise the relations of the Islamic countries and the region with the Zionist regime in order to create security for this regime, but it also failed in this task and could not create security for the Zionist regime through normalisation.
Those who sought to normalise relations really stabbed the Palestinian people in the back and the Palestinian people will not forgive them. The reason why the Zionist regime has become so bold is because it feels that some countries have become indifferent to its crimes.
Anchor: Does your recent rapprochement and resumption of relations with Saudi Arabia upset the Zionist regime in particular? What do you think?
President Raisi: We have relations with Saudi Arabia. Our political relations have been established and the Zionist regime must be upset by this development of relations between Islamic countries and suffers from the unity of Islamic countries. I can even say that the Zionist regime has become angry with the Islamic Republic because of this suffering and discomfort.
Anchor: Mr. President, in any conversation with an Iranian official, especially the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, naturally one of the questions is where Iran's nuclear case and your relations with the West have reached. What is the latest news regarding Iran's nuclear case?
Nuclear energy is the inalienable right of the Islamic Republic of Iran. We must use this gift for the welfare and betterment of our people's lives. Nuclear energy has many uses in medicine, industry, mining, energy, oil and gas, and petrochemicals.
What the Westerners, especially the Americans, express concern about is that Iran wants to use nuclear energy to build an atomic bomb, we have stated many times that we will use nuclear energy peacefully, and so far no deviation has been reported in Iran's use of this energy and industry. We have not had any deviations at all, because the International Atomic Energy Agency supervises our nuclear industry and has officially announced 15 times until today that the nuclear industry in Iran is peaceful and has no deviations, but the Westerners do not adhere to these announcements. They announce themselves and they themselves violate these official announcements.
Today, countries express their concern about the peaceful nuclear activities of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who they themselves have an atomic bomb, and they express their concern about the activities of a country that has proven to date that it is not looking for an atomic bomb and is only looking for the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
The important point here is that we consider the use of peaceful nuclear energy as an inalienable right of the Islamic Republic and we do not deviate in our actions. This adherence to the peacefulness of nuclear activities is not because of the prohibition of countries that have all nuclear bombs, but it is based on our belief. Why are these countries not worried about the Zionist regime, which has nuclear warheads?! Why are Europeans and Americans not worried about the Zionist regime, which has a nuclear warhead and has no competence in this field? During these crimes of the Zionist regime in Gaza, one of the ministers of this regime officially threatened the Palestinian people with the use of nuclear bombs.
Why are they not worried about such a regime with such an approach, but they are worried about the Islamic Republic of Iran, which not only does not have a nuclear bomb, but its nuclear activities are also peaceful, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed this many times.
This is a significant point for the people of the world. It is clear that their problem is Iran, not the nuclear bomb, they seek to exert pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is powerful, stands on its own feet, and its nuclear industry is internalised. When the Zionist regime attempted to assassinate the nuclear scientists of the Islamic Republic of Iran, they thought that the nuclear industry in our country would be stopped, but it was not! The activity of the nuclear industry continues because this industry has become endemic in our country.
At the same time, the Islamic Republic of Iran never left the negotiation table in line with goodwill. Whenever the negotiation table was between us and within the framework of the 5+1 and 4+1 negotiations, we did not leave the negotiation table and we announced our right and reasonable words to the members of the meeting and the world.
We did not leave the negotiation table even now because we have logic and those who have logic are not worried about negotiations. We had an agreement that the biggest violators of this agreement were the Americans.
But as for what we want to do, I must say that our nuclear activities have no deviation and we believe that the use of this industry is effective for the development of our country, and therefore it cannot be abandoned.
Anchor: At the end of this conversation, let's go back to the first point once again, will the seventh meeting of the leaders of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum held in Algeria be a basis for expanding and diversifying cooperation?
President Raisi: I believe that the discussions that were raised in the 7th meeting of the heads of gas exporting countries were significant points and the secretariat must summarize them so that we can take a step towards greater cooperation between gas exporting countries.
I announced in this meeting that the Islamic Republic is ready to export technical and engineering services and transfer its experiences in the field of energy and gas to other countries. The words of Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune had the same tendency.
Anchor: During your trip to Algeria, you also visited a religious place, namely the Algiers Mosque. We are approaching Ramadan, if you have a message in this regard for the people of Algeria, especially the youth, please let us know.
President Raisi: First of all, I must appreciate and thank all those involved, especially Mr. President himself, for the construction of this comprehensive and large mosque in Algeria. The mosque is a place of worship of the Almighty God and communication with God.
Among the important functions of the mosque, in addition to the place of worship of the Almighty God and communication between Muslims, is the connection between this mosque and other mosques and cultural centers inside and outside Algeria.
I hope that this center for worship, especially while we are approaching the holy month of Ramadan, will be a relaxing center for the dear people, especially the dear Algerian youth, and that they will always maintain this relationship with all Muslims, especially the oppressed Muslims in Palestine.
I also pray to the Almighty to grant success to the people of Algeria.
