Iran to continue neighborly diplomacy, manage tensions with US: FM

According to The Iran Project, "Ensuring national interests, national security, and national honor are the three main missions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and all the activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and our foreign policy will fall under one of these three," Araghchi said in an interview with IRIB news desk.

Explaining the first mission, Araghchi said, "We seek to provide the national interests of the country, mainly these interests are economic interests, but we also envision other interests besides the economy."

The top Iranian diplomat continued that "our second mission is to help the country's national security, strengthening national security is to help the deterrent power of the country through diplomacy, and the third mission is to raise the dignity of the country and provide international dignity for the country" and the pride of Iran and Iranians.

Explaining the priorities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Araghchi said, "The first priority is the neighbors, our surrounding area is full of many opportunities, both in the field of national interests and national security, and the movement that started during the administration of Martyr Ayatollah Raisi will continue strongly."

Explaining the second and third priority, he said that the second priority is to expand the field of diplomacy to Africa, Latin America, East Asia and other areas that may have received less attention.

"There are many opportunities in these areas that can be exploited for us. The third priority is the countries that were with the Islamic Republic during the difficult times and helped us in the field of sanctions, and today we have very special relations with them. We will strengthen these and continue with more strength," he added.

He stated that the next priority is the emerging powers that play a role in the international arena, countries like India, South Africa, Brazil and to some extent Turkey and other countries known as emerging economies or emerging powers.

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Araghchi further pointed out that after these, there are countries that are not Iran's priority at the moment, such as European countries, and said, "Because our relations with European countries have had many ups and downs in recent years. They adopted wrong and sometimes hostile policies towards us. We will have a dignified and opportunity-oriented interaction with them based on mutual respect and from an equal position. As the Supreme Leader said, if they put aside their wrong and hostile policies, they will be in our priorities again."

He emphasized that the US is next for this discussion, and said, "We are not looking to resolve the conflict with the US and resolve the tensions with the US."

"Because many of these tensions are caused by a series of differences in basic views, and there is basically no benefit in cutting them. We are looking for conflict management. If this conflict exists, it is not necessary for the Iranian nation to pay any costs for it," he added. "We have a duty in foreign policy to reduce the costs of this conflict as much as we can and to reduce its pressure on the people and not allow an international consensus to form against us. I believe that the foreign policy can move very well in this direction and with the initiatives that can be spent, the costs of this conflict can be reduced and not allowed to go beyond a series of stages and cause major losses to the country."

Araghchi further stated that "I believe that within this threat and hostility that America has had against us over the years, many opportunities have emerged, and the Islamic Republic has taken advantage of many of these opportunities and is now in a position where the strategic balance is better than in previous years".

Reporter : Editorial of The Iran Project