Resolving regional problems impossible without Iran: ex-FM

TEHRAN, Feb. 5 (MNA) – Iranian former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati has said that Iran exercises power in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Caucasus regions.

And resolving regional issues without Iran’s help is impossible, Velayati told a gathering of university professors on Friday.

He also quoted some remarks from Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, who had said Iran is a regional power.

Mullen has said “we are worried about this increasing power and (we) are trying to establish defense systems in (Iran’s) neighboring countries,” said Velayati, the foreign policy adviser to the Supreme Leader.

Velayati went on to say that Iran has played an important role in giving spiritual support to the Islamic resistance movements in Lebanon and Palestine.

It was through such spiritual supports that Hezbollah succeeded to shatter the myth of the invincibility of Israel in the 33-day war on Lebanon in the summer 2006.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he said certain elites in Iran think that the world has been turned into one whole and the issue of independence is over.

However, Velayati said this is a misconception about globalization.

Independence means people have sovereignty over their country and that people do not let foreigners make decisions for them, he observed.