Khamenei Advisor Says Iran Is A World Power Equal To Russia, China
Maryam Sinaiee
Iran International
Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign relations advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has said the United States would not dare to attack Iran.
Iran International
Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign relations advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has said the United States would not dare to attack Iran.
"Iran's regional power is on the rise,” Velayati said in an interview with hardliner Kayhan newspaper published Tuesday. “Iran has never been as strong during the Islamic Republic era and has substantial power and influence in the region and internationally now. Americans confess that they have to deal with three powerful countries, [namely] Iran, China and Russia.”
The interview focused on Velayati’s defense of a "looking East" tilt in foreign policy with President Ebrahim Raisi (Raeesi) due in Moscow Wednesday. Velayati, who was foreign minister 1981-97, said Iran's power had grown so much that its enemies, "particularly Americans," realized they could not attack without serious “consequences.”
Velayati also argued that closer relations with China and Russia offered Iran a way to “lift” and “neutralize” US sanctions, which have expanded and tightened since the US in 2018 left the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). Russia in particular has been supportive of some Iranian demands during Vienna talks aimed at reviving the JCPOA.
Critics of the Raisi government, which took office in August, and many in the Iranian public, are wary of Iran's closer relationships with China and Russia. Some social media posts claim Raisi’s government has tipped the balance in its foreign relations completely in favor of the two eastern powers and is “selling out” the country.
Political analyst Ali Bigdeli has alleged that China and Russia might sacrifice Iran’s interests, including its nuclear program, to secure their own interests in Ukraine and Taiwan. "They may strike a secret deal [with the US]," Bigdeli was quoted as saying by Aftab-e Yazd newspaper Tuesday.
But the aim of the previous government under President Hassan Rouhani to use the JCPOA as a stepping stone to attract European investment, especially in energy, was undermined by US ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions, which threaten punitive action against any third party buying Iran’s oil or dealing with its financial sector.
Commenting on the chances of an agreement over restoring the JCPOA, Fereydoun Abbasi, lawmaker and former head of the Energy Organization of Iran Agency told the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) Tuesday that an agreement would be viable only if Iran "maintains its power in the region" and puts pressure on Israel.
Abbasi argued Iran needed to extend its "trenches against the enemy outside the borders of Syria,” to “put pressure on the Zionist regime,” which he said was lobbying against Iran. Abbasi suggested that a desirable result in the nuclear talks was linked to strengthening ties with allies across the Middle East, with the aim of lifting the Israeli and Egyptian “siege on Gaza” and freeing Syria’s Golan region, which has been occupied and settled by Israel since 1967.
"We should negotiate [with world powers] but we will not achieve our country's desired result in the talks as long as there is not pressure on the Zionist regime,” Abbasi said.
The alliance strikes on Houthi-held Sanaa followed an attack claimed by the Iran-aligned Houthis on Monday on coalition partner the United Arab Emirates, in Abu Dhabi, in which three people were killed.
The coalition also said it intercepted eight drones launched toward Saudi Arabia on Monday.
Early on Tuesday, the coalition said it had begun air strikes against strongholds and camps in Sanaa belonging to the Houthi group, Saudi state media said.
The strikes appeared to be the deadliest since 2019 on Sanaa.
The strike that killed about 14 people, according to initial estimates, was on the home of a Houthi military official.
It killed him, his wife, his 25-year-old son, other family members and some unidentified people, a medical source and residents told Reuters.
The UAE has armed and trained Yemeni forces that recently joined fighting against the Houthis in Yemen's energy-producing regions of Shabwa and Marib.
Monday's Houthi-claimed attack on two sites in the UAE set off explosions in fuel trucks, killed three people and ignited a blaze near Abu Dhabi airport.
In response, the UAE said it reserved the right to respond to "terrorist attacks and criminal escalation".
Reporting by Reuters
Zeifollah al-Shami told the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) affiliated Tasnim news agency in an interview after Monday's attack that the most important message of the Houthis operation was telling the United Arab Emirates that there would be retaliation if the UAE continued to attack Houthi forces.
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels Monday targeted a key oil facility in Abu Dhabi and the UAE capital's international airport with explosive-laden drones launched from Sana'a airport, the Saudi-led Coalition that backs Yemen's internationally recognized government said Monday.
The Houthi drone strike coming amid indirect talks between the United States and Iran to revive the 2015 nuclear talks might add another negative factor in to the complicated process. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Israel say that Iran’s support for militant groups is a serious threat to regional stability and an agreement with Iran should also tackle this issue in addition to Tehran’s nuclear program.
The UAE also hosts the US Navy and other forces. The Houthi threat could also be seen as a threat against the presence of the US military.
According to the Abu Dhabi police, three fuel tanker trucks exploded in the industrial Musaffah area near oil storage facilities firm Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, adding that a separate "minor" fire broke out at a construction site of the emirate’s main airport. Houthis’ military spokesman claimed responsibility for the two incidents and said they had launched a military operation "deep in the UAE" and would announce details in coming hours.
"The attack by the [Houthi] Yemeni armed forces against the UAE was part of a legal and legitimate response that was carried out in retaliation for the escalation of war by the UAE and its continuous military actions against the people of Yemen," he told Tasnim.
In its report on today's attack, another IRGC-affiliated news agency, Fars, said it was the Houthis' "concrete warning to Abu Dhabi for continuing its aggression in Yemen despite [earlier] warnings."
The attacks on Abud Dhabi Monday involved 20 drones and 10 ballistic missiles, Fars said in a report entitled "The Reason for the Yemeni Attack on Abu Dhabi Today", while calling it the "biggest strike on the UAE in the country's 50-year history."
The UAE has substantially reduced its involvement in Yemen and the Houthi claim os Emirati aggression seems overblown.
Iran-backed Houthi group conducts regular cross-border missile and drone attacks against targets in Saudi Arabia and the Saudi-led coalition has retaliated with air strikes inside Yemen. Houthi claims of attacks inside the UAE, however, have been rare and mostly denied by Abu Dhabi.
Earlier this month the Houthis hijacked a UAE-flagged cargo vessel heading to the Saudi port of Jizan, just north of Yemen. The Houthis claimed the vessel was a “military cargo ship” carrying equipment into Yemen’s territorial waters to engage in “hostile acts”.
In 2019 the UAE, a member of the Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting Iran-backed Houthi forces for over seven years, scaled down its military presence in Yemen amid heightened regional tensions with Iran.
Iran and Saudi Arabia held talks last year with Iraqi mediation to mend their broken diplomatic relations. Iran and the UAE have also been moving toward a reproachment recently after years of tensions in their relations.