April 7, The Iran Project - Iranian Minister of Defense Brigadier General Amir Hatami arrived in the Russian capital on Tuesday (April 3) to participate at the VII Moscow Conference on International Security.

While in Moscow, he held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoygu, Belarusian counterpart Andrei Ravkov, Kazakhstan's Minister of Defense and Aerospace Industry Beibut Atamkulov, his Pakistani counterpart Khurram Dastgir Khan, his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vulin and addressed the ‘VII Moscow Conference on International Security.

Upon his arrival in Moscow, Hatami said, the prescriptions issued for the security of the region from outside the jurisdiction are not feasible due to the lack of understanding of the nature of regional crises and also inappropriateness of interests of foreign actors with the interests of regional countries.

Talking to his Russian counterpart, Hatami referred to Iran’s active participation in all seven security conferences organized by Moscow, saying military cooperation between the two countries has been progressing well under an agreement signed in 2015.

The Russian defense minister, for his part, hailed Iran and Russia’s joint efforts in liberating a major part of Syria from terrorists’ control and noted the various fields for expanding cooperation between the two countries, stressing the need for further talks on improving security in the region, and the return of refugees to Syria.

In a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart, Hatami expressed his appreciation for Belarusian government’s support for Iran at the United Nations.

The Belarusian defense minister, in turn, described the bilateral ties between the two countries as dynamic and expanding, expressing his country’s willingness to expand relations and cooperation with Iran.

Talking to Atamkulov, Hatami discussed the current situation in the Middle East, reiterating that extremism was being used by the US and Israeli regime to advance their objectives in the region; “profit-seeking and exploiting terrorist groups to plunder the resources and riches of regional countries has always been one of the objectives of the dominating powers,” he added.

The Kazakh minister of defense, for his part, commended the joint cooperation between Iran, Russia and Turkey in combating terrorism and preventing the escalation of tension in Syria.

In a meeting with Dastgir Khan, Hatami also criticized the interventionist policies in the Middle East, adding “we believe that regional countries should not allow the Americans to carry out their sinister plots which are against national interests of the countries in the region and lead to further insecurity, instability and chaos.”

The Pakistani minister, for his part, voiced satisfaction at the level of border cooperation with Iran in the past few years, noting “given the current insecurities in the West Asia, the two friendly and neighboring countries of Iran and Pakistan need to have closer cooperation on settling regional issues.”

In a meeting with Vulin, Hatami voiced Iran’s readiness to expand military and defense cooperation with Serbia, expressing hope to see the signing of agreements on technical, specialized and military cooperation between the two sides in the near future.

The Serbian minister, for his part, hailed Iran’s efforts for preserving peace and security across the region.

Addressing the ‘VII Moscow Conference on International Security,’ Iranian defense minister referred to the US repeated violations of the nuclear deal with Iran, stressing “the United States and some of its western partners’ violations of the nuclear deal erodes trust in the international arena.”

US President DonaldTrump, who once threatened he would tear up the JCPOA, has given the European signatories to the deal until May 12 to either fix “the flaws” in the deal or Washington would withdraw.