BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 29. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says emerging regional agreements and arrangements could mark the beginning of a new phase of cooperation among Muslim countries, according to Iran’s IRIB news agency.
Ghalibaf said neighbouring Muslim states should increasingly rely on their own capabilities rather than foreign powers to ensure regional security.
He argued that countries in the region should prioritise cooperation and “brotherhood” instead of continuing what he described as exhausting rivalries.
According to the Iranian parliament speaker, recent developments have demonstrated that foreign powers are neither capable of providing lasting security for the region nor genuinely willing to do so.
Ghalibaf said a security architecture dependent on the presence and intervention of powers from outside the region would inevitably remain “fragile and dependent”.
By contrast, he argued that a security system based on cooperation and coordination among regional countries could prove sustainable.
The Iranian official also highlighted relations between Shia and Sunni Muslims inside Iran, saying their unity was “not a ceremonial slogan”.
Ghalibaf described Shia-Sunni unity as one of the foundations of Iran’s national power and an important asset for the country’s security and development.
