Energy security a pretext for occupying countries: Iran’s Jalili

TEHRAN, June 9 (MNA) – The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said that the issue of the security of energy supplies has provided a pretext for certain countries to occupy other countries. Saeed Jalili made the remarks on Friday during a speech at an annual international security conference in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg. “In the current century, we are witnessing that some countries have been occupied, military interventions have been made, and innocent people have been killed on the pretext of (maintaining the security of) energy (supplies),” he stated. “In fact, the issue of the security of energy (supplies) has itself caused insecurity in many regions of the world,” he said. “Many countries that are currently concerned about their security of energy (supplies) are not concerned about the security of the world and other countries, but rather have adopted a unilateralist attitude and see their interests and security of energy (supplies) in the insecurity of the others,” he opined. In the Saint Petersburg security conference, which began on Thursday, a range of security issues including information security, international energy security, and the campaign against piracy were discussed. Security officials from more than 70 countries and international organizations participated in the two-day conference. The Saint Petersburg meeting was the third international security conference hosted by Russia. The first and the second meetings were held in the Russian cities of Sochi and Yekaterinburg in 2010 and 2011 respectively.