Seyed Mohammad Khatami: We View the Current Global Order as Unjust, but We Must Operate Within Its Framework / Former Reformist President's Account of Peaceful Nuclear Activity in Isfahan

Seyed Mohammad Khatami said: We must respect values. We must certainly give special attention to development and fight poverty. But many now oppose the current global order. Criticism of the liberal order has been on the agenda since around 1930. We can be critical of the global order.

According to the report of Ambassador Arjan Seyed Khatami, in the 147th specialized meeting of the Baran Foundation, stating that it is possible to interpret Akhundi's speech as saying that liberalism is desirable, he said: There is a difference between seeing the liberal order as a reality and accepting it de facto (informally) and seeing the liberal order as a way to save humanity. Many in the world accept liberalism, but at the same time, follow a socialist approach. The existing global order is a cruel order, but we must see it as a reality and operate within this order to secure our own interests; Like what China is doing and has become the second power in the world and is pursuing the goal of reaching the position of the first power in the world.

According to Ambassador Arjan, he then said: We have a facility in Isfahan whose main job is to convert uranium into fuel for atomic energy factories and it operates completely in a peaceful way. The first designer of this facility was the Chinese, who invested about 500 million dollars on it. This project was almost stopped. During my presidency, I had three meetings with Jiang Zemin, the then president of China, and in all three cases, I offered to help the operation of this factory. But Mr. Zamin told me to "stop this project; We also passed on this investment, because we only pursue the goal of China becoming an economic power and we avoid anything that hinders the realization of this goal." Of course, this work of China had an advantage for us, and that is that it made us stand on our own feet and use our own power to operate those facilities that were bombed in the recent attacks.

The former president of Iran addressed to Akhundi emphasized to correct the phrase "Shiite kingdom" in his words and said: Although the Islamic revolution pursued the goal of the prosperity of Iran, at the same time, we must have ideals. Based on these ideals, we consider the current world order oppressive and reject any aggression.

He then recounted a memory of his trip to America in 2015 and recalled: After the end of my presidency, I went to America at the invitation of Mr. Kofi Annan and gave a speech at Harvard University, and many pro-Israel Jews were also present in that speech. One of these people said to me that "you aim to destroy Israel and help terrorists." I told him in response, "I am not doing anything now, but in the first place, we need to define a terrorist, not to consider every trend that opposes us as terrorism." Today, there are two currents facing each other that accuse each other of terrorism; One is al-Qaeda and the other is the Bush administration. Both of these work with the same logic; Whoever is not with us, is against us, and whoever is against us, deserves any treatment. You accuse us of terrorism, and I can say that the Israeli government is a terrorist. I consider a large part of what you call terrorism to be a legitimate resistance against aggression and occupation.

He added: I continued to answer, "Ethically, humanity has paid a lot to be able to turn this into a principle that occupation and oppression are not the source of legitimacy." This is what Farabi also said. This is why films about French resistance against Germany are now praised. If occupation brings legitimacy, now France should be a part of Germany. I then asked the Jew whether Israel was created peacefully or by occupation. We reject the occupation of Palestine, but we do not interfere in the affairs there, and we consider the liberation of the Holy Land to be the right of the Palestinians. "We morally support the Palestinian people, but we do not place ourselves in front of a power in their place."

The head of the 7th and 8th governments said to Akhundi: A misunderstanding that may arise in your words is that you consider the liberal order desirable. We must respect values. We must pay special attention to development and fight against poverty, but now there are many people who are against the existing order in the world. Criticism of the liberal order is an issue that has been raised since around 1930. We can criticize the world order. This is not to say that the way to our salvation is to accept the liberal order. Today, even many economists emphasize the correctness of a series of principles of socialism, including "participation" and "cooperation". However, we must work with global institutions to secure our interests according to the existing standards.

At the end of this meeting, the attendees honored Seyyed Mohammad Khatami's birthday.