Top international adviser to #Iran's SP Ali Akbar Velayati speaking @ValdaiClub now:says term #MiddleEast is British concept, he'd rather use West Asia/North Africa,argues due to #US influence some countries seek to play greater regional role (than they can)
Velayati:*throughout history external powers sought to dominate Mideast, #US no exception here, #Libya, #Somalia brought manifestations of western FP,#Trump seeks to undermine region,he wants to partition #Syria as they did w/ 🇱🇾 & #Iraq - bith once big, important states
Velayati: New element is after Islamic Revolution #Iran able to conduct policies independent of Western states, this is real reason why #US seeks to counter IRN.But if ot were not for #Russia & IRN, Leader of Nusra would be ruling today in #Damascus, head of #ISIS-in #Baghdad.
Velayati: #US, #Israel support these terrorist groups, been giving them arms, medical treatment, it's a big conspiracy where #KSA, #Qatar, #Turkey too participated. We, #Hezbollah rished to help #Syria, #Putin deserves credit for joining this fight
Velayati:When #US says #Iran has to leave #Syria, #Iraq-we didnt come there upon American request & won lt leave under American threats. Whereas US there w/ their own aggressive presence w/ot invitation.
Velayati: What business is it to #US what #Iran doing im #Syria? And what America itself doing there - we are inour region, you go back to Western Hemisphere. I tell #Russia/n officials-today they want us out of SYR, tomorrow will demand that YOU have to depart, it's their plan
Velayati: Once we leave #Syria, #Russia too will be forced to leave, more than 25K #ISIS terrorists now sitting home in #Iraq, once they feel we are weak, they will come out with new attacks.
Velayati: When it comes to problems in their countries they seek alliamces, solutions,when it comes to our problems they suggest division & partition,they divided #Iraq in 3 parts, they want #Syria in 5,but will stand up to them to make them back down from our region
Velayati asked to comment on @netanyahu statement on #Russia efforts to remove #Iran from #Syria-#Israel border,dodges answer,says IRN cant care less about what "head of Zionist regime"says:"He is speakimg way too much,even his Western parterns avoid meeting him tired of his talk
Velayati: #Iran's presence in #Syria is not about #Israel,we are discussing our moves w/ #Moscow & #Damascus, not Israel, they dont need to know our moves.
Velayati says he is skeptical about #Putin@realDonaldTrump summit:#Trump unpredictale man, every morning he wakes up he makes new decisions, font think he'll offer #Putin smth logical. Whereas #Rus President is clever and brave man, he stands up for his principles
Velayati ruled out meeyings with #Trump, his administration, says "these people cant be trusted, dont deserve doing business with", we cant have them meet with us, make empty promises and then say in their propaganda that they made progress in dealing with #Iran
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Short THREAD on #Russia - #Turkey divergences over #Idlib as seen from #Moscow: 1. In early August I described rationale behind RU positon & that "certain level of understanding reached w/ TUR that there should be no [large-scale] offensive on Idlib [then]"almon.co/338t
2.I recently reached out to the same senior RUS diplomat who reiterated #Moscow's bottom-line desire to settle the issue peacefully except for terrorists organization who he argued #Turkey too agreed to fight as part of AStana agreements.Yesterday,RU #Syria envoy Lavrentyev..
3. .alluded to #Russia's growing displease w/ #Ankara's inability to deliver upon its committments in the area that, as Lavrentyev said"is kind of their zone of responsibility."Instead,#Erdogan writing op-eds,trying to enlist support from #West/ern partners over #Idlib which is..
..the idea for the summit was to get a deal where all the 3 can secure their bottom-line interests.They didn't fully achieve it since there will be another round of trilateral talks (some time in the future in #Russia) and the parties hope to settle #Idlib issue in #Tehran but..
..(a) #Turkey maintained credibility of the oppoaition (by that good cop-bad cop thing #Erdogan & #Putun played), (b) #Russia got his promise to deal w/ those attacking #Hmeymim (c) #Ankara received time to settle the major task of assorting militants (d)..
#Lavrov now: De-confliction b/n #Russia & #US in #Syria wotking wrll, when there's a need Americans turn to us for explanations of certain things and we do the same
#Lavrov now: When we intervened in #Syria in Sep'15 #ISIS wad at the gates of #Damascus. Not a single power that are today raising voices about humanity, rights, etc moved their finger to prevent #Daesh from almost capturing the city & making it the capital of their caliphate
#Lavrov on @realDonaldTrump tweet on #Idlib: #Trump's right-we need to avoid a humanitarian crisis there. That's what we always try to do w/ humanitarian corridors & other coverups for civilians unlike Americans,say,in #Raqqa who just ironed the city. Now they want to cover Nusra
This mistake (or, again, was it intentional #fakenews frill?) set a line of reports that "#Russia reveals..." which is not the case. The info was allegedly LEAKED by two Rus diplomats to @business bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
The proposal on #Donbass appears to have indeed been made by #Putin,the info was not supposed to be disclosed until #Trump discussed it with his team. One may not like the proposal itself, but that it's now disclosed is bad for solution of the issue,courtesy of presidential talks
Antonov adds,another group of #US lawmakers are planning to visit #Russia following a rare trip to #Moscow by Republican members of #Congress this month.The Ambassador noted, however,there was little chance of a trip by Russian lawmakers to #America before congressional elections
Antonov: Politicians in #Washington are very far from the people. What they are doing doesn't meet interests of American people.
3. #Putin & #Trump will be meet face-to-face around noon (1pm #Moscow time). The leaders have at least 3 hours scheduled for themselves after which they will proceed to another room for working lunch in a broader format with ministers and advisers.