IRNA � A senior Iranian official said the country's missile capability is for defensive purposes and non-negotiable.


Addressing a gathering at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna on Friday, Kamal Kharrazi, Chairman of Iran�s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations said circulation of phony information about Iran's missile authority would undermine the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the UN Security Council's resolution.

Touching upon the Islamic Republic of Iran's role in the Middle East and the Europe's strategy in the region, he pointed to the popular revolutions that started across the Middle East and North Africa (in 2011) against despotic rulers of the region.

He underscored that the peaceful popular revolutions, which started from Tunisia and continued in Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen, were against the tyrannical rule of their corrupt governments.

The Iranian official added that the movements were eventually derailed from their original path due to the foreign meddling, the region was engulfed by crisis and its consequences backfired on the European countries.

Referring to the sponsoring of Takfiri terrorists in Syria and Iraq by certain Persian Gulf littoral sates, Kharrazi underlined that it would lead to collapse of such governments and fan the flames of crisis across the region.

He said that terrorism also poses a threat to Iran, adding that Tehran rushed to help the Iraqi and Syrian governments in their counter-terrorism efforts because the terrorist groups were too close to the Islamic Republic's borders.

Pointing to the expansion of Wahhabism in the region due to the financial support of US and Saudi Arabia, Kharrazi said the former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has recently confessed that Washington helped the formation of extremist groups in Afghanistan aimed at tackling the Soviet Union.

He stressed that the Islamic Republic of Iran has proposed the idea of the Middle East free of nuclear weapons, adding that the country deems the nuclear arsenals as a major threat to the regional stability.

The senior official added that Iran entered into negotiations with the P5+1 group of countries and finally both sides managed to sign the landmark nuclear agreement which has had a positive effect on safeguarding security and tranquility in the region.

Kharrazi also expressed regret that some European countries are trying to tie the JCPOA to the non-negotiable issue of Iran's missile capability.

Iranian top official noted that the European countries' security has been established owing to the sacrifice of those who are fighting terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria.