Islamic Iran not after building empire: Speaker

Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani said Iran was not seeking to build an empire.In an interview with Kuwait’s Al-Rai TV, he said Iran was not after such games or gaining dominance over other regional countries.

Answering a question about Iran’s nuclear negotiations, he said good progress has been made since the beginning of the talks especially during the latest round of talks where positive steps were taken.

He said he was quite optimistic about the future of negotiations with the 5+1.

He was asked to comment on the idea of some American analysts who believed there will be changes in the region once Iran achieves a nuclear agreement.

Larijani stressed that Iran has always promoted peace and security in the region.

He said Iran follows a policy of peace with all regional countries and looks at them as its brothers.

The Iranian Parliament speaker further stressed Iran’s belief that nations should rely on only themselves.

He said Islamic countries were certainly of no need for others to play as their patrons.

He said it was totally wrong for certain countries to make their military presence in the region.

Larijani also referred to Israel as a cancerous gland contaminating the whole region and said Iran was the only country to help, in practice, Iraq to fight the terrorist Daesh, or Lebanon and Ghaza to confront the brutality of the Zionist regime.

Turning to situation in Syria, he said the only party to benefit from current conditions are the Zionists who have created this catastrophic situation to make the region eternally busy with own internal affairs.

He said it is easy for everyone to see now that a big terrorist movement emerged from within these chaotic conditions which spread all over the region.

He referred to Kuwait as a brotherly and friendly country.