As historic neighbors, Iran, Russia cannot be enemies

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that as historic neighbors, Iran and Russia cannot be enemies, underlining existing good relations between the two nations and urging expansion of ties to the highest level.

Addressing Iranian families residing in the Russian capital, Moscow, Monday night, President Ahmadinejad said, “The friendship between the two countries is certainly beneficial to both nations as well as all regional nations and thus these friendly ties must strengthen.”

“Fortunately,” the Iranian president reiterated, “the Russian president also pursues a similar approach.”

“Of course, such ties have their enemies too, since hegemonic powers can never tolerate friendship between two countries and two nations; in fact, they always want to remain the chief of the world,” Ahmadinejad stated.

The head of Iran’s executive branch further emphasized on the need to build the Islamic Republic in all fields and turning it into a “global model,” describing the task as “public duty” and clarifying that the process will likely involve a lot of controversies since “there is a small group that always wants to impart their problems to the human society in efforts to achieve their objectives.”

Describing the pace of Iran’s progress as “very good,” President Ahmadinejad went on to note that today the Islamic Republic has done great things and “accomplished high advancements.”

He also stressed that the common goal of the Iranian nation must never be forgotten, adding that we must “aim for highest peaks” and put the latest knowledge and advancements in the world at the service of our country.

During his speech President Ahmadinejad further pointed to the fact that over half of the world’s population live in poverty, saying that when there is no justice, many human capacities will fail to flourish “since justice is the basis of human development [and] justice is the common aim of divine prophets.”

The Iranian president arrived in Moscow on Monday to partake in the 2nd GECF summit and hold talks with foreign counterparts including Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The GECF, whose first ministerial meeting was held in Tehran in May 2001, is an intergovernmental organization comprising 13 of the world’s leading natural gas producers, namely Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. The observer states include Kazakhstan, Iraq, the Netherlands and Norway.

GECF’s potential rests on the enormous natural gas reserves of its member countries, which account for some 62 percent of the world’s proven natural gas deposits.