Irandaily | No. 4473 | National

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Syria Dispute Shouldn’t Affect...

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All countries will never reach a consensus on all international developments, since that would run contrary to human nature, but such differences should not undermine friendly relations, he observed.
Negotiations, consultations, meetings and dialog should be held when disagreements arise so the parties involved can express their views and explain the rationale behind their opinions and then arrive at the best solution, Mehmanparast said.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 and tens of thousands of people, including large numbers of army and security personnel, have been killed in the turmoil.
The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.
Damascus blames western countries and some of their regional allies including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey of arming the opposition and fueling the crisis in the country, as reports indicate that a large number of insurgents fighting the Syrian government are foreign nationals.
Several international human rights organizations have accused the foreign-sponsored insurgents of committing war crimes.
Iran has repeatedly rejected foreign intervention in Syria’s internal affairs, calling for national dialog as the only way out of the country’s prolonged impasse.
In a key speech in January, the Syrian president stated that Damascus was always ready to hold talks with the opposition and political parties and that he would call for a ‘comprehensive national dialog’ after the terrorist activities stopped in the country.
The Syrian president also urged ‘concerned states and parties’ to stop funding, arming and harboring militants.

Harming Iran-Latam Ties
Mehmanparast also said Israel uses the case of 1994 AMIA Jewish center bombing in the Argentinean capital, Buenos Aires, to obstruct the development of relations between Iran and Latin American states.
“Iran has been charged of being connected with the AMIA incident by a regime which pursues state terrorism. The Zionist regime [of Israel] has been trying hard to disrupt Iran’s regular activities within Latin American countries under the pretext of AMIA bombing incident,” the spokesman said.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman added that the Israeli regime has been trying to falsely accuse the Islamic Republic of being involved in terrorist activities despite the fact that the Iranian nation is the biggest victim of terrorism and has always made every effort to eliminate this sinister phenomenon.
“The Zionist regime [of Israel] is still one of the biggest threats to security and stability in all regions including Latin America and this illegitimate regime should not be allowed to negatively impact relations between Iran and Latin American countries,” Mehmanparast noted.
He also pointed to the recent agreement between Iran and Argentina to set up an international truth commission to investigate the AMIA incident, saying that for the first time efforts are being made to shed light on the truth behind the AMIA incident.
On January 27, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and his Argentinean counterpart, Hector Timerman, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to shed light on the AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires which left 85 people dead. AMIA stands for the Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina or the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association.
Argentina’s Senate on February 21 gave the green light to the agreement with Iran on the AMIA case with the senators voting 39-31 in favor of the MoU. Argentinean lawmakers later signed the agreement into law after a 14-hour session with 131 ayes against 113 nays.
Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Timerman have also endorsed the agreement, which stipulates that the fact-finding commission, composed of five foreign legal experts, should issue a report after carrying out an evaluation of Argentina’s investigation into the issue.
Under intense political pressure from the US and Israel, Argentina had formally accused Iran of having carried out the bomb attack. The Islamic Republic has categorically denied any involvement in the terrorist bombing.

Energy-Hungry EU
The spokesman further said the European countries need Iran’s assistance to continue economic growth and development.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran can be a very good economic partner for the European countries,” Mehmanparast noted.
The official added that the Islamic Republic can serve as a long-term energy supply source to the European countries because the country sits on the world’s second largest natural gas and the fourth largest crude oil reserves.
Mehmanparast further stated that member states of the European Union (EU) have great capacities, but they have suffered great losses due to their economic dependence on the crisis-ridden economy of the United States.
“At the moment, we are witnessing social and economic crises in the European countries which have taken some of these countries to the brink of total bankruptcy, and in some other countries the economic crisis has led to major social crises including [record-high] unemployment,” he pointed out.
Europe plunged into financial crisis in early 2008. Insolvency now threatens heavily debt-ridden countries such as Greece, Portugal and Spain.
The worsening debt crisis has forced EU governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms, which have triggered incidents of social unrest and massive protests in many European countries.