Iran should reconsider relations with Turkey

Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi who was addressing National Conference on West Asian Geopolitics held in Center for Strategic Defense Research in Tehran, told the meeting that the Middle East (Western Asia) consisted of different complex layers of geopolitics, geo-economics, and geo-strategy; “Western Asia is the juncture where three ‘old world’ continents of Asia, Europe, and Africa meet. The region is a centerpiece of any economic, political, and security grand plan by hegemonic powers; the region is undergoing geopolitical transition and geopolitical change at the same time,” he detailed. “Drastic changes in old order and structures in the Middle East, including but not limited to collapse of central authority in Iraq and occupation by the US of Afghanistan helped, however with less success, hegemonic powers in efforts to establish unipolar world order.”

Rahim Safavi highlighted the region’s strategic fossil sources as making things even complicated; “now, the Middle East is a great hub of latest technologies in warfare; Arab states of the Persian Gulf have bought weapons worth of hundreds of billions of dollars,” he added.

He proposed a coalition of regional Asian powers (Russia, China, Iran, India, and Pakistan) along with Islamic countries cumulative capabilities as a remedy to face and contain the growing US role as the pioneer of a unipolar order; “the Islamic Republic of Iran should be prepared for the worst scenario and prepare accordingly; the current threats are so-called anti-terrorism coalition headed by Saudi Arabia and under the aegis of the US,” he told the conference.

Rahim Safavi, who is also scientific secretary of the Conference, then touched the necessities and requirements of the condition where Iran retains its geopolitical weight and importance in the region, believing that the enterprise emulating this demanding task would incur costs; “strengthening contributing factors of national sovereignty (economic, political, social, military, and scientific), and a good governance to secure public consent are crucial in securing Iran’s place in international community,” he said.

Safavi also proposed that the Islamic Republic of Iran should reconsider its relations with Turkey, a neighbor which had functioned as a close ally of the US and Zionist regime in implementing their policies in the region.