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- Third step: Iran officially informs EU of plan to expand nuclear R&D
- Iran expands nuclear R&D program: Rouhani
- Iran goes ahead in space tech, despite US sanctions: ISA
- Resistance Front undermining Israeli regime power: Top commander
- Iran: 7 crew members of detained UK ship freed
- US addiction to sanction threaten its power: Iran’s Zarif
- Dutch role in 2007 Stuxnet attack on Iran’s nuclear site under scrutiny: Iraian FM Spox.
- Iran: ‘Sustainable Security 2019’ kicks off in Caspian Sea
- Iran’s Zarif leaves Tehran for Moscow
- Shiraz University ranked 1st in liver transplantation: Iranian health official
- Japan’s Abe to meet Iran’s president to discuss easing tension in region
- Downing of US spy drone shattered war threats against Iran: Top IRGC commander
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- Iranian Taekwondo team wins 2019 World Cup championship
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- Crew fixing Iran oil tanker broken down in Red Sea
- As Iranians hold nerves, US seeks to scare off trade
- Leader expresses concern about Kashmir, urges India to follow fair policy toward Muslim-majority region
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- Iran FM warns US against ‘serious miscalculation’ in Persian Gulf
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- Iran in reverse brain drain as top students come home in rising numbers
- Iran official calls for compensation for tanker seizure
- Iran hails N Korea for standing against ‘unilateral’ US demands
- Shia Muslims celebrate Eid Al-Ghadir
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- Zarif says to meet French president Friday
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- Iran warns US against seizure of oil tanker
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- Gibraltar releases Iran-operated tanker despite US pressure
TEHRAN, November 18 - A senior Iranian official has advised French President Emmanuel Macron against meddling in Iran’s internal affairs, including such strategic issues as the Iranian defense program.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - Ali Akbar Velayati, who advises Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs, made the remark in an interview with IRIB News after Macron said Iran’s ballistic missile program had “to be curtailed.”
Velayati said, “It is not in Mr. Macron and France’s interest to interfere in the missile issue and the Islamic Republic’s strategic affairs, on which we are very sensitive.”
“Such interference will have no impact other than diminishing the French government’s credibility in Iran’s eye,” Velayati said.
“How does the (missile) issue concern Mr. Macron? Who is he to interfere in the first place?” he said.
Velayati said Iran would ask no one for permission to have or not to have missiles or to assign what range to those missiles.
‘Go de Gaulle’s way’
He advised Macron, France’s youngest leader since Napoleon, to follow in the footsteps of the late French ruler General Charles de Gaulle by adopting a stance of “semi-independence” in his foreign policy.
Velayati said Iran would say no to any proposal to enter into negotiations on its missile program.
“No country,” he said, “would bargain over its national interests.”
In a November 11 visit to Saudi Arabia, Macron had also said he was “very concerned” about Iran’s ballistic missile program, adding, “There are negotiations we need to start on Iran’s ballistic missiles.”
French President Emmanuel Macron addresses a press conference during a visit to the Volvo Campus Lundby of the Swedish carmaker on the sidelines of the European Social Summit, in Gothenburg, Sweden, on November 17, 2017. (Photo by AFP)
Trump ‘cannot run US like a casino’
Elsewhere in his remarks, Velayati said US President Donald Trump “is used to racketeering, but running this country (America) is not like running a cabaret or a casino, where he would use shenanigans to accumulate money.”
He referred to Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia earlier in the year, after which the US president boasted of having made a lot of money, apparently referring to America arms sales worth hundreds of billions of dollars to Riyadh.
Velayati said it showed that Trump viewed international relations as a means of making money.
He said Trump was “wrong” about Iran and would benefit from learning a salutary lesson from his predecessors and should “know that he is no match” for the Iranian nation and government.
Source: PressTV
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