‘If a new war breaks out between two neighboring countries, it will be in the interests of neither the region nor of any Caucasian state’, he said.
By the decree of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani, recently Hamid Abutalebi has been appointed as the new advisor of the President, who is the head of the Asian Studies of strategic research centre at the Iranian President’s Office, and also the political affairs assistant of the Office head. Touching upon his appointment at the interview with “Aravot”, Iranologist Artyom Tonoyan informed, that Abutalebi has been Iran’s ambassador to Australia, EU, Italy, and Secretary of Iran’s foreign policy affairs.
“Despite the fact that, according to some Western media, Abutalebi was among the students who captured the US Embassy in Iran on November 4, 1979, and took the employees hostage till January 20, 1981, for 444 days, Abutalebi personally denied this information in 2013, noting that during the hostage incident he had visited the American Embassy only once with the Pope, as a translator. Moreover, in 2014, immediately after the Iranian government presented Abutalebi as a representative of Iran in UN, the US Senate and Congress adopted a decision banning Abutalebi’s entry to the United States. Later this decision was signed also by US President Barack Obama”, told our interlocutor.
He mentioned that once, another scandalous story involving Hamid Abutalebi was published in the pages of The Daily Telegram, according to which in 1993 when Abutalebi was the Iranian ambassador to Italy, he was accused of the assassination of Mohammad Hossein Naghdi, an Iranian opposition figure there: “The Iranian side responded to this accusation by claiming that Abutalebi was not in Italy in 1993, having completed his embassy mission there in 1992”. Tonoyan highlighted that the new advisor to the President of Iran was quite active during the April military actions provoked by Azerbaijan in 2016, making notes on this topic on his Twitter page. In particular, he wrote:
“The escalation of border clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as the situation becoming more critical can trigger uncontrollable situation between the two countries” (02.04.2016).
“We should focus on conflict sensitivity, since if a new war breaks out between two neighbouring countries, it will be in the interests of neither the region nor of any Caucasian state” (02.04.2016).
“More than two decades ago, Iran’s efforts to establish peace between the two neighboring countries have yielded remarkable results. These efforts should again be put into action, until it’s too late” (02.04.2016).
According to Artyom Tonoyan Abutalebi’s Twitter posts on the Artsakh conflict, in fact, reflect the official Tehran’s position on those days. “It was built in maintaining a neutral approach to the implementation of measures aimed at ensuring peace in the region and solving the conflict with principles of war exclusion”, concluded the Iranologist.
Luiza SUKIASYAN
