Speaker of the Iranian parliament Ali Larijani said that links in the world of Islam have become further consolidated compared to the past.

 

Addressing the closing session of the 13th Conference of the Parliamentary Union of the OIC member states (PUIC), Larijani said, 'In the 13th PUIC we witnessed that there was no differences among the members and all are in concordance.'

 

He said atmosphere of friendship governed the session, adding, 'And I did not notice any point of difference among the Islamic parliaments. Even when it came to electing the secretary general, which was conferred to Senegal, all countries accepted it with the unifying spirit. This showed that under the sensitive conditions today, our bonds have got further consolidated.'

 

'We do live under highly changing global and regional conditions, said Larijani, adding, 'Taking look at stances of the United States of America in less than past year, we can see how their stances have turned impolite and harsh towards people of various countries and these stances are somehow racism.'

 

'That's not a simple point. In the crusades millions were killed; the mankind no longer wants to observe wars similar to those days. (US President Donald) Trump's claims show new war and that would cost different countries dearly. The country that claims supporting rights of nations, should not speak in a way to humiliate nations. The behavior the Americans follow in Syria show they do not want end to terrorism in the region. The world today suffers tornados and Islamic countries should overcome those through unity and set aside differences. There might be certain differences among Islamic countries, but when we see such an organized animosity with the Islamic countries, we should scale down differences and seek methods of dialogue. The session gave the message to us that we are brothers and companions and want to solve differences through dialogue and the OIC should serve as a bed for the issue. Parliaments are voices of nations and we are happy that representatives of parliaments speak so candidly. Parliaments speak so explicitly sometimes when governments cannot say anything. The conduct of Americans towards themselves showed injustice and all strongly condemned it and asked for concrete actions against it.'

 

This shows that representatives of parliaments are voices of the public and our work has started from today and we should move to the direction to stage practical action for self-defense.

 

While emphasizing that economic cooperation among Muslim countries should expand, he said, 'We should admit that we have been witnessing lowering of ties among Muslim countries as far as economic cooperation is concerned. This is while Muslim countries enjoy good grounds and are full of energy sources and experts; so we need political vigilance of Muslim countries. Muslim countries are big hub on condition that economic cooperation among them will expand. Iran has whole heartedly put on agenda cooperation with Islamic countries and we have many countries will move in that direction. Terrorism is a very important issue; terrorism is a very ugly phenomenon harming dignity of Muslims and it entails cultural and security consequences. Certain countries take the issue as a tool. Americans lead it. Experience has shown wherever you witness war and occupation, we then witness terrorist trends.'

 

Larijani referred to terrorist trends in Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq after wars in the countries and said militarism has been the cause for expansion of terrorist trends. 'So, we oppose militarism and all should have single voice and prevent terrorist trends. Many countries have suffered heavy blow by terrorism like Syria and Iraq. We should admit terrorism has not ended and terrorists are migration movements and move from one place to other and cause troubles for Muslims.'

 

'We should mandate security forces in Muslim countries to cooperate in fighting terrorism. Iran is ready in this domain and there should be consensus on campaign against terrorism. That's childish imagination that certain people can use terrorism as a tool. That's a mistake because when terrorists get well strong and gain financial facilities, they go their own way because they have backward attitude.'