Arab League ministerial statement ‘unconstructive, invalid’: Qassemi

Iran has lambasted as counterproductive and divisive a recent statement by the Arab Quartet Committee, which accused the Islamic Republic of intervention in regional affairs.

According to Press TV, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Thursday that the statement only served to widen rifts in regional relations.

The statement does not reflect the standpoint maintained by all regional countries and only represents the “specific attitude of certain countries,” he added.

The statement had been issued a day earlier in Cairo at the end of a meeting of the committee comprising Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Bahrain. The committee was meeting on the sidelines of the 151st session of the Arab League Foreign Ministers.

“The committee’s worthless and unconstructive statements yield nothing, but further distrust and widening of rifts among regional countries,” Qassemi said.

The committee’s foursome members, he added, know well that the Islamic Republic would not be affected by such “hostile measures,” and would retain its independent policy of “opposing the invasion of Yemen, fighting terrorism, and [objecting to] presence of extra-regional forces in the Persian Gulf.”

The Iranian official advised regional countries to stop pursuing hostile policies, embargo, siege, military intervention, and efforts aimed at eliminating one country from regional equations.

Instead, the countries need to invest in trust-building efforts and comprehensive regional structures enabling multilateral cooperation, Qassemi concluded.

SS