Abolqasem Delfi, former Iranian ambassador to France, told the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations that the European Council has issued a statement on the occasion of the anniversary of the Ukraine war which forms the foundation of the statement issued by European ambassadors in Tehran.

He said the statement suggests that after one year of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Europe has been dealing with many problems and misfortunes through it, and in response to this invasion, has imposed sanctions against Russia, as a neighbour and an important trading partner of Europe. The imposition of these sanctions has not been easy for some member countries of the European Union and it has brought costs.

He pointed to the presence of more than 5 million Ukrainian refugees in Europe and continued that in this statement, the European ambassadors have addressed the issue that Iran is also a country accepting refugees and the population of several million Afghans in Iran has created problems for Tehran and in fact from this perspective have sympathized with the refugee problems in Iran.

Referring to the claims of Europe and the West regarding Iran’s arms assistance to Russia in the war with Ukraine, this international affairs analyst noted that European ambassadors have stated in this statement, without naming any country, that helping an aggressor in war is against international laws and the country that does such an action is considered to be in violation of international laws.

He added that regardless of Iran’s assertions that military relations and cooperation between Iran and Russia are within the framework of bilateral relations and that the delivery of drones to Moscow is related to the period before the start of the war in Ukraine, it should be mentioned that Europe should be asked if helping the aggressor to the neighbouring country, only in the case of the Ukraine war, is considered a violation of international regulations and should be dealt with in the most severe manner? or is it a procedure that should be applied to all international issues and developments and neighbourly violations?

Delfi explained that it is true that Europe is in trouble due to Russia’s aggression and believes that Mr. Putin has violated international rules, but there have been other wars in which the aggressor country has violated international rules, and Europe has not only failed to deal with it but also has helped the aggressor; an example of such double standards is in the imposed eight-year war of Iraq against Iran and when Saddam invaded our country and occupied parts of it and caused numerous disasters and calamities; Europeans in general and especially some members of the Union who had special relations with Saddam openly sent a lot of aid to the Iraqi Baath regime, including in military and civilian dimensions.

The former ambassador of Iran to France stated that Europe’s positions and performance in international issues should be addressed in a larger way so that the illusion that their performance does not have any defects is more worthy of attention. For example, this performance is not only limited to the discussion of war, but today an organized terrorist group called the “MKO” group is based in Europe. This terrorist group, which was previously on the list of terrorist groups in Europe and the US, and terrorism is also hated and despised according to international laws, and no country has the right to cooperate with it, the US and EU faced this group peacefully and provided them with facilities to work in line with their goals to attack Iran’s interests. Certainly, these actions are against international laws and Europe has always been unable to answer the question why they are stationed on European soil.

Delfi added that of course, in some cases, Europe has declared in response to Iran’s follow-up regarding the terrorism of the MKO that they have not carried out terrorist operations on European soil and therefore they cannot be prosecuted! The meaning of this argument is that if terrorist operations are carried out on European soil, it can be followed and if the events happened outside of Europe, it has nothing to do with Europe. This ambivalence and double standards are one of the shortcomings that have existed in European diplomacy, especially in the European Union as a whole, and Europeans are always avoiding to respond to this objection.

Delfi also added that Iran has declared its positions on the war in Ukraine many times and has not recognized the annexation of parts of Ukraine to Russia and has not accepted them as independent republics. Also, the recent statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the anniversary of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, and the recent positions of the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Geneva have also sought to clear some of the ambiguities against Iran.

In another part of his remarks, this former diplomat pointed to China’s attempt to remove the accusation of arms aid to Russia and the peace plan proposed by that country for the Ukraine crisis and reminded that we must still emphasize that we will never side with the aggressor, and will not defend aggression.

“We do not provide weapons to the aggressor country. We must resolve the ambiguities related to our positions in the world as soon as possible so that the decisions that are being made to deal with Russia do not include Iran and continue our way independently like Beijing. We must emphasize that Iran’s policies are within the framework of principled policies and strategies based on the “Neither Western nor Eastern” strategy. We are a country that were under aggression for eight years, and we will not accept the accusation that the world will attribute to us for providing support for this aggression under any pretext and make it a procedure for future confrontations.”

Delfi said that ambassadors are duty bound to defend the interests of their country in the host country and make efforts to improve bilateral relations, adding that the major part of the task of facilitating, improving and expanding the relations between the two countries is the responsibility of the ambassadors of the countries, and this issue has a specific definition in their mission, and although Iran is presented as Russia’s partner in aggression in part of the public opinion of the West under the pretext that it has military cooperation with Russia, the ambassadors living in Tehran are well aware that Iran continues to emphasize and disambiguate its position and that Iran and Russia are two neighbouring countries that have had cooperation before and this has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine and past military cooperation should not be related to Ukraine war. Certainly, the unambiguous reflection of the country’s positions by the ambassadors will play a significant role in the future of relations and securing the interests of the parties.

The former diplomat of Iran in Paris stated that unfortunately, relations between Iran and Europe have many problems and it is necessary to define a framework for dialogue and cooperation.