Iran’s Ambassador to Bangladesh, Jalil Rahimi, said Bangladesh follows a highly balanced foreign policy, adding: “So no decision by Bangladesh concerns us. We do not consider the Mecca Agreement to be an agreement directed against Iran.”
The Iranian ambassador made the comment Wednesday morning in response to reporters’ questions after meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister-1 Humayun Kabir. He met with the deputy foreign minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that day.
“We believe this Mecca Agreement is actually a sign of weakness in U.S. security arrangements in the Middle East,” the Iranian ambassador said. “We have no challenge or opposition with Saudi Arabia. As for Turkey and Pakistan, they are very good friends of the Islamic Republic of Iran. And we also maintain good relations with Saudi Arabia — it is a country with which we continue to have friendly ties. So we have no concern or worry about the Mecca Agreement.”
Ambassador Rahimi said Iran did not target the territory of any Arab country during its conflict with the United States and Israel. “As you know, during the recent conflict between Iran and America, we only struck American military bases located in these Arab countries. We never attacked the territory or soil of any Arab country,” he said.
Experts say the Mecca Agreement is essentially being formed to serve U.S. and Israeli interests, raising the question of whether Muslim countries joining it are indirectly serving those same interests. Asked about that, Iran’s ambassador said: “No, that is not the case. The Mecca Agreement is being formed at a time when the United States is deeply anxious about providing security for itself and its allies in the Middle East.”
“Our question now to Arab countries like Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan is this: Has the United States been able to give you the security you wanted?”
On this point, the Iranian ambassador said Washington’s message to countries in the region has always been clear over the years. “They’ve said: give us land for our military bases and buy weapons from us, and we’ll give you security,” he said. He said the United States used that same justification to attack Iran — as if it could change Iran’s political system and government, seize Iran’s uranium, halt Iran’s missile production, and demonstrate its military power to the world.
“But as you can see, there has been no change to Iran’s political system. Our enriched uranium is still in our hands. And just last night, our missiles struck American military bases in Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq’s Kurdistan region,” Rahimi said.
Noting that the United States has spent billions of dollars trying to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, the Iranian ambassador said: “In my view, this Mecca Agreement is really just a supplementary piece of America’s strategic defeat. Muslim countries in this region now understand that America’s stockpile of weapons cannot provide them with real security. So we do not see the Mecca Agreement as directed against Iran, and we are not concerned about it at all.”
Asked whether Iran had made, or would make, any proposal to join the Mecca Agreement, Ambassador Rahimi said: “We have not submitted any proposal ourselves to join. But if the member states of the Mecca Agreement invite us or propose that we join, we would consider it.”
Noting that Iran had put forward a similar proposal roughly a decade ago, the ambassador said: “We proposed building a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East, so that no country in the region would possess nuclear weapons. But did Israel or the United States support that proposal? No, they did not. Our second proposal was for all the Islamic countries of the Middle East to sign a joint defense pact. But the Arab countries did not support that proposal at the time, because they believed American assistance was sufficient for their security.”
“Now our question to Arab countries like Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan is this: Has the United States been able to give you the security you wanted? Was the U.S. able to stop our missiles that crossed your airspace on their way to Tel Aviv?” he said.