New Delhi: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wants relations with India to prosper, his representative in India Abdul Majid Hakeem Ilahi said amid growing tensions with the US.
US president Donald Trump has warned Iran of total destruction if it continues to crack down on protesters. Ilahi has said that such threats are not new and any attack will be treated as an act of war, even as an US carrier group steams towards his country.
“The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran always insists on good relations and collaboration between Iran and India…I hope that in Chabahar they will work nicely…The history of the relationship and collaboration between Iran and India goes to 3,000 years ago, before the emergence of Islam. Even at that time, we were using philosophical books of India,” Ilahi has been quoted as saying by ANI.
India’s achievements in mathematics, astronomy, and medicine were studied in Iran and people of Iran have always learned about the relationship between the two ancient civilisations, he said.
“Even at the university, we studied philosophical books of India, and in mathematics, astronomy, and medicine, we were also using your civilisation, your knowledge, and we always learned through our schools the relationship between Iran and India,” Ilahi added.
Opening up about the ongoing situation in his country, the envoy said that economic problems due to sanctions against it
do exist and some people are angry, “but other people use this opportunity to reach their target and achieve their aims”.
The situation at the moment “is very good, under control” and is not like what is being mentioned on some social media handles, he noted.
There is need to distinguish between “reality of the situation” and “imagination” about the situation in Iran, Ilahi said.
“Concerning the situation in Iran, actually we have two things which we have to divide and differentiate between them. The first one is the fact and the reality of the situation. The second one is imagination, which is created by the journalist’s narration, by the enemies, or by other people. There is a very deep gap between these two realities,” he said.
“The first one is fact, reality, and the second one is imagination…Yes, we have economic problems; some are angry with the situation of the economy, which was created by some countries against Iran, based on the sanctions. But other people use this opportunity to reach their target and achieve their aims. Now, at the moment, the situation is very good, is under control and is not as much as mentioned on social media,” Ilahi added.
When asked about the people killed in Iran during the crackdown on nationwide protests, he said some have been killed, but the numbers are not clear..
“At first, these protesters attacked civilians, policemen, and businessmen and killed them as they wanted to benefit from this situation, and they mentioned that these people were killed by policemen, which is not true…Yes, the number of killings was mentioned by some organisations which are based in the UK, the US, and in European countries or other countries. But these numbers are incorrect and fake. They want to increase the number of killings to mention that the government killed them,” Ilahi said.