TEHRAN — Iran’s deputy foreign minister believes that foreign policy and defense policy complete each other.

Speaking on the eve of the Army Day which falls on April 18 this year, Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s deputy foreign minister stressed that foreign policy and defense policy are “complementary”, saying, “We thwarted the enemy's trick in creating a gap between foreign policy and defense policy with resistance based on leadership tact and intelligence.”

Bagheri Kani stated that the resistance is not just a defense mechanism against the aggressors invading the territorial integrity of countries and violating their independence. 

He said dynamic and lasting security of a region depends on explicit, transparent and unconditional denial of aggression and occupation.

The deputy foreign minister, who is also Iran’s top negotiator in the Vienna talks, added, “If the Western powers sent bloodthirsty terrorists to the war of human culture and civilization with the 'logic of weapons' and created al-Qaeda and Daesh in the region, the resistance with the 'weapon of logic' and taking a step towards identifying human beings and the civilization of nations proved its superiority in the realization of progress in the shadow of security in practice.”

Referring to the attempts of some simple-minded people to introduce the resistance as an irregular movement or promoter of disorder, Bagheri Kani said, in practice, resistance has proven to be a comprehensive doctrine for “effective governance of society, free-spirited human elevation and identification of independent nations.”

“During the imposed war (Iraq’s war against Iran in the 1980s known as the Sacred Defense), some powers tried to portray Iran as a cause of tension and disorder and place Saddam as the axis of stability and peace, but history has shown that aggression and occupation will not provide stability and peace,” he added, noting that even today Iran believes that the nature of the Israeli regime’s aggression and occupation are not only destabilizing and source of tension, but also cause of disorder.

He then identified this characteristic as one of the pillars of the nature of Zionists.

Emphasizing that the interaction of some governments in the region with the Zionist regime is like taking refuge in the “dreaded wolf's nest to escape the spring rains,” Bagheri Kani stated that Iran never forgets Imam Khomeini's advice to the heads of some governments in the region during the Sacred Defense. 

“Imam Khomeini cautioned them to stop supporting Saddam Hussein and said that if Saddam had a chance, he would come (to invade your country) and we saw what Saddam did to them after failing to confront Iran. That is why friendship with the Zionists will lead to exactly the same fate,” the deputy foreign minister concluded.