Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that some foreign sides seek to cause problems in the country’s relations with its neighbours, calling on Iranian officials to prevent the implementation of such policies.
The leader made the remarks in a meeting held in Tehran with the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s officials as well as the country’s ambassadors, elaborating on Iran’s foreign policy principles and priorities, according to the leader’s website.
He said Iran has long borders with different countries, and the current Iranian government has been pursuing an “important and correct” policy in expanding relations with neighbours.
The Iranian leader said it is “important” to pursue the policy of developing relations with Muslim states, no matter how far they are from Iran and friendly countries with similar positions.
There is an unprecedented trend in “great and important” countries entering companionship and alignment with Iran under the guidelines of foreign relations, and Iran should grasp this opportunity and improve its relations with these states, he noted.
Iran says US, EU criticism of convicts’ execution “meddlesome,” “ridiculous”
Also on Saturday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson dismissed the US and EU criticism against Iran’s execution of three convicts who killed security officers in an armed attack as “meddlesome” and “ridiculous.”
“Instead of intervening in the internal affairs of other countries … Western politicians had better listen to the voices of their own citizens’ protests and meet their demands,” Nasser Kanaani said in a statement published on the ministry’s website.
“Europe and the United States do not have the legal, judicial and moral authority to comment on judicial issues and human rights of other countries,” he noted.
On Nov. 16, 2022, three men carried out an attack in the Khane Esfahan area of the central Iranian city of Isfahan, killing three security officers and injuring several others, according to the Mizan news agency of the Iranian judiciary.
The three men were charged with crimes including those referred by Iranian authorities to violations against Islamic codes and breaches of national security, Mizan said.
In a statement on Friday issued in the wake of the execution, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the EU condemned the execution “in the strongest possible terms,” calling on Iran to “refrain from applying the death penalty and carrying out future executions.”
The US State Department on Thursday urged Iran to refrain from carrying out the executions, calling the proceedings “sham trials.”
“The execution of these men, after what has been widely regarded as sham trials, would be an affront to human rights and basic dignity in Iran and everywhere,” said State Department Principal Deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel at a press briefing.
