Iran foreign, defense policies complementary to one another: Cmdr.

A high-ranking Iranian military official says Iran’s foreign and defense policies go hand-in-hand with one another, as each props up the other.

“Foreign and defense policy are complementary to each other,” said Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi in Tehran on Thursday.

Military might is considered a kind of backup for the negotiators, Firouzabadi said, adding that the Iranian negotiators are “in our league; thus, our might is backup for them.”

“At a stage when dialog and rationality can remove threats, there is no need for the presence of military forces,” he said, adding, “We are using the opportunity and strengthening ourselves.”

“A foreign minister can speak in stronger terms and more firmly when he is aware of that support,” the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces said.
On April 7, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) praised the Iranian negotiating team’s diplomatic efforts for defending Iran’s right to pursue a peaceful nuclear program during talks with the P5+1 – the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China – plus Germany in Swiss city of Lausanne.

Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari

Iran’s nuclear delegation has admirably defended the nation’s peaceful nuclear rights, said Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari.

Iran’s red lines in the talks with the world powers include the acceptance of Iran’s right to possess a full nuclear enrichment cycle as well as research and development in this field besides the lifting of all nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran, Jafari added.

Representatives of Iran and the P5+1 group meet in the Austrian capital, Vienna, April 24, 2015. (© AFP)

The nuclear negotiations are continuing between Iran and the P5+1 with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of the 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in New York on Monday.

The previous round of the talks between Iran and the six world powers ended in Vienna, Austria, on April 24. During the three-day talks, the participants started drafting the possible final deal based upon mutual understanding reached in Lausanne on April 2.