Confrontation with Iran detrimental to Europe: Analyst

A political analyst says Iran is definitely a very important and powerful country in the region, stressing that the confrontation of European countries with Tehran will be detrimental to them in many aspects.

“Through confrontation with the Iranians, the Europeans have hurt themselves immensely economically and politically. And Iran continues to be a very important and definitely the most important country in the region,” professor at the University of Tehran Mohammad Marandi told Press TV.

Pointing to a major upheaval in the Middle East region, he added that the European countries have recognized that they currently need Iran to help create stability in the region more than ever before.

“Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan are all key areas which are highly unstable and unfortunately countries like Saudi Arabia are playing a major part in this instability,” the commentator said.

He believed that the European Union has come to a point that it has to change its policy towards Iran “in order to fight against terrorism.”

“And also the Europeans need Iran economically. Europe is in crisis and declining. Asia is on the rise…They could have had Iranian gas through gas pipelines, but they created a monopoly by placing an embargo on Iran and weakening their own positions,” Marandi pointed out.

The commentator added that rapprochement between Iran and the European Union is quite possible if the bloc pursues a more “realistic and reasonable” manner towards Tehran.

“But if the European Union does not have the will or if it allows the Americans and the Israelis to pressure them and prevent rapprochement, then the ball will remain in their court,” the analyst emphasized.

He reiterated that the Europeans are presently suffering more than the Iranian nation as a result of the tension.

“So the Europeans need Iran to bring back stability, to do away with oil and gas monopolies and to increase wealth among their own people and the people of this region as well because basically the ball is in their court,” Marandi concluded.

His comments came as EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is currently on a landmark visit to Iran at the head of a politico-economic delegation.

She held talks with senior Iranian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, on Iran’s nuclear energy program and the expansion of relations between Tehran and the 28-nation European bloc.