Deputy FM: West looks for interests not human rights

Tehran, IRNA – Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Ali Bagheri Kani said on Tuesday that the West looks for its interest not fighting terrorism, drug trafficking, and protecting human rights. Bagheri Kani met and held talks with the ambassadors and heads of political representatives of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) here in Tehran on Tuesday. Regarding the capacities of cooperation among Asian countries, Bagheri Kani called ASEAN an appropriate capacity to promote economic cooperation and reiterated that economic cooperation, regional stability, and peace will institutionalize and eliminate the grounds for foreign interference in regional affairs. Pointing to the political and profit-seeking approach of Western governments on international issues, he underlined that western governments are not looking to fight terrorism and drug trafficking and protect human rights, while it forms part of the foreign policy toolkit of these countries, and therefore, whenever their interests are needed, they support terrorism and violate human rights. At the meeting, each of the ASEAN countries' members emphasized the development of bilateral and multilateral cooperation and added that bolstering cooperation between ASEAN members and the Islamic Republic of Iran would sustain the long-term interests of the two sides. Follow us on Twitter @IrnaEnglish