NEW YORK, May 16, (NNN-IRNA) – Iran’s UN envoy said on Thursday that Tehran is not interested in escalation of tensions in the region and entering conflict with any other state.
‘We are not interested in the escalation of tensions in our region because if something goes wrong all, including the US, Iran and all the countries in the region, will lose,’ Iran’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Majid Takht-e Ravanchi said.
He made the remarks in an exclusive interview with the US’ National Public Radio (NPR).
The envoy stressed that Iran is not interested in war or planning for war and war is not an option for Iran.
He said also that ‘at the same time, we have to be prepared for any action against our forces and territorial integrity and sovereignty.’
‘We are vigilant, we are doing everything possible to lower the tensions in the region, but unfortunately there are certain people both in Washington and our region who are interested to escalate the tension and to agitate the situation in the region,’ the Iranian ambassador said.
He noted that ‘I believe, it is in everybody’s interest to prevent such an eventuality’.
The envoy referred to Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s remarks that that Iran is not interested in war and noted that this is the view of most high-ranking officials in the Iranian Islamic establishment.
‘We are not going to prepare anything for a conflict; we are not interested to provoke, but we are preparing ourselves for defensive measures; it is our right to be prepared to defend ourselves.’
Takht-e Ravanchi stressed that ‘we are not going to do anything which can be interpreted as an offensive act by Iran’.
He, meantime, categorically dismissed the US-based New York Times’ alleged report on armed Iranian speed boats in the Persian Gulf and noted that these are part of fake allegations against Iran to prepare something like a conflict or war.
Elsewhere in his remarks, commenting about Iran’s reciprocal measures to suspend two parts of its obligations in the nuclear deal, Takht-e Ravanchi said that the Iran move is not against the nuclear deal and in fact what Iran did is a measure to preserve the deal.
According to paragraph 26 and 36 of the deal, Iran has the right to lower its commitments and not to do certain things that was doing in the past to reciprocate other sides’ violation of the deal, he added.
NNN-IRNA