'Coalition for peace' need of the hour: Iranian envoy

Mehdi Honardoost made the remarks in an interview with Pakistan's 'Waqt News' TV channel.

The full text of the interview is as follows:

Q: How do you see the statement of defense minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif that there is an understanding between the governments of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia regarding sending of General Raheel Sharif to lead the 41-nation military alliance?

Ambassador: From the very first day of the issue, we announced officially our position regarding the military coalition. There are lots of tensions among the Muslim countries and something that we need is the coalition for the peace. Iran has expressed its readiness for dialogue among the nations and we have also tried to build more confidence among the Islamic countries, but we are concerned about the consequences of this issue.

Q: Do you think General Raheel Sharif leading this coalition will have some positive effects on the impression being created that this is just a Sunni alliance.

Ambassador: Many times we have said our official stance regarding this matter, we believe that our Pakistani brothers and wise leaders of this country are well aware of our concerns in this issue, we talked about the subject many times with our brothers frankly that participation of Pakistan in this matter could not bring peace. We have lot of gap between the Islamic countries. Our brothers in Pakistan can play an effective role for bringing the Islamic world more close together. We are not optimistic that this recent action of Pakistan can fill this gap.

Q: Did the government of Pakistan consult government of Iran on appointment of General Raheel Sharif?

Ambassador: This time we have conveyed our concerns regarding this matter, of course we have trust, we have confidence in the wise brothers in the government of Pakistan that they are fully aware about the Iranian concerns and something that we need that Pakistan as our neighboring and brotherly country they should fully consider the Iranian concerns, Iranian concerns not about the bilateral relations, Iranian concerns about this matter that we believe that this coalition may probably deteriorate the situation among the Islamic countries. You can take the example of poor country of Yemen; we believe that this is not fair that different countries united against this small country.

Q: But despite all diplomatic efforts peace could not be achieved in Yemen and there is no consensus so what difference will just another military alliance make because in Yemen there are other military forces, don’t you think this military alliance can have positive impact to restore peace in the country.

Ambassador: We believe that the government of Pakistan will fully consider Iranian concerns regarding the subject and we are waiting for the positive step by our brothers; Pakistan is a big Islamic country and can play a very effective role regarding many tensions in the Islamic members of the region and we hope that wise leaders of Pakistan will try to use their influence for the positive, clear and bright future of the Muslim world. We expect that Pakistanis have good answers to Iranian questions and remove the ambiguities.

Q: Can you elaborate the questions and ambiguities?

Ambassador: The first question regarding this matter is that in this unfair fighting between poor people of Yemen with some big countries, Pakistani leaders must try to solve this issue and not coming to benefit the bigger side of the conflict.
The second question which we have asked our Pakistani brothers is that would you please elaborate to the government of Iran that what is your program for the better lives of poor people of Yemen and settle down this conflict. We are not sure that if our brothers are sure about that Pakistan can overcome this conflict. We have so many questions but these two questions are on top priority.

Q: If Iran is offered to become part of this military alliance will you consider it?

Ambassador: Really we never received officially this proposal from brothers in Pakistan and any members of the coalition, but my own position, regarding this matter, keeping in view the Iranian government’s stance, I don’t think Iran should become part of this coalition.

Q: There are many countries in the coalition, why focus only on Pakistan because it cannot even solve the problem in Afghanistan?

Ambassador: We have lot of commonalities between Iran and Pakistan. We are witnessing many tensions among the Islamic countries and both countries can together solve these issues. There is great potential for the expansion of ties between Iran and Pakistan. If we receive any constructive proposal regarding peace and tranquility in the region I am sure Iran will look into the matter positively.

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