The opening ceremony of the forum began on Monday morning with the presence and speeches of special guests, including Iran's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, and senior officials of invited countries in Tehran.
The 2022 Tehran Dialogue Forum (TDF) will begin Monday, 19 December 2022, with a speech by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian.
TDF 2022 was held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Center for Political and International Studies with many foreign diplomats, especially from Iran's neighboring countries.
The central concept of this year's assembly is "neighborhood policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, an approach to friendship and trust building."
Four-panel discussions scheduled to take place after TDF's opening ceremony include the Latest Developments in West Asia, Persian Gulf Security, the Ukraine Crisis and its Regional and International Aftermaths, and the Perspective of Peace and All-Encompassing Government in Afghanistan.
About 70 people from 36 countries attended this forum, including political officials, managers of Think Tanks, organizations, and research institutes.
The first and second editions of the TDF were held in 2019 and 2020, bringing together regional politicians and thinkers in international studies, especially from West Asia.
Mohammad Hassan Sheikh Al-Eslami, President of IPIS
The President of the Institute of Political Studies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pointing out that Iran is looking for a dialogue between the thinkers of the region and the world, said: "Today, the world needs dialogue more than anything else."
Mohammad Hassan Sheikh Al-Eslami said on Monday at the third Tehran Dialogue Forum: "The concept of this year's meeting is to approach friendship and neighborliness, in line with the foreign policy of the 13th administration and far beyond the old concept of neighborliness, which aims to create and stabilize the neighborliness with relying on a profound concept of trust with neighboring countries.
Explaining the details of the Tehran Dialogue Forum, he said: "Four issues will be discussed in this meeting, and the main areas of discussion are the security of West Asia and the Persian Gulf, Energy Security, the crisis in Ukraine, the developments in Afghanistan, and the formation of a comprehensive government in this country.
Referring to the investigation of more effective enforcement mechanisms in the security structures of the Middle East and West Asia, Sheikh Al-Eslami stated in the Tehran dialogue forum the discussion and analysis of the Palestinian situation and the way to solve the problems of this country and the oppression of the Zionist apartheid regime against the Palestinian people would be discussed.
Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian
Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian stated: "Iran is always ready to build trust and cooperate with its neighbors in the region, including the Persian Gulf countries."
He added: "We are trying to eliminate once and for all the idea of providing security from outside the region."
The Iranian foreign minister said: "In West Asia, we consider our neighbors as our brothers and their security and well-being as ours. Iran has always been one of the foundations of security and stability in the region and the pillar of countering ISIS terrorism."
"Iran has always been at the forefront of fighting all kinds of terrorism in the region and the world, Iran's top diplomat noted.
"On the anniversary of the martyrdom of the two heroes of the fight against terrorism assassinated by the US, including former Commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) Lieutenant-General Qassem Soleimani, and the former Deputy Head of Iraq's PMU Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, I have to remind these two great heroes who protected the security of Iran, Iraq, and the world," noted the Iranian foreign minister.
Amir-Abdollahian announced: "We are ready to hold a joint meeting of foreign ministers between Iran and the Persian Gulf countries and other neighbors.
Stressing the baseless nature of the claim that the Islamic Republic of Iran provided weapons and drones to Russia in the war against Ukraine, Amir-Abdollahian stated: "The accusations against Iran and the controversy that says the country is sending weapons to Russia are to cover up the warmongering in Ukraine because at the same time Billions of dollars are spent on weapons by Western countries to import them into Ukraine so that the European country continues the war."
"Today, we see that Europe is paying for the policies of the United States, which is far from the crisis zone," he noted.
Adil Abdul Mahdi former prime minister of Iraq:
Adil Abdul Mahdi said on Monday at the third Tehran Dialogue Forum (TDF 2022): "It is an honor to participate in this meeting."
The former prime minister of Iraq added: "There are some indicators in the current state of the world and it is very difficult to talk about these issues. There are conflicts today between the dominating countries and the oppressed countries, and until we understand these issues, we cannot have a proper understanding of any country's situation."
Abdul Mahdi noted: "Western powers have lost many of their military capabilities, including their nuclear, missile, and drone capabilities."
The former Prime Minister of Iraq stated: "China's national production per capita has reached 30 trillion dollars, and China has become the second largest holder of US Treasury bonds".
Abdul Mahdi stated: "We are witnessing a historical phenomenon, and the center of gravity has been shifted to former colonial countries such as India.
He considered the Persian Gulf region, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean to be the main routes in international trade and stressed that the occupation of the Israeli regime is still one of the important factors causing the crisis in the region.
The former prime minister of Iraq emphasized: "Our effort is to focus on reducing the power of the domination system and creating alternatives for it because it seems that the 21st century is the dawn of Asian, African, and Latin American powers."
Kamal Kharazi. Advisor to Supreme Leader
Kamal Kharazi head of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, called the recent riots in Tehran the hybrid war which has been orchestrated by the political and the intelligence apparatuses of the foreign countries.
Iranian former Foreign Minister further said that the whole process had been pre-planned, and it was a hybrid war in that all the aspects, including the social and political, were involved.
Kamal Kharazi, former Iranian FM, stressed that Iran has aimed for a zone free of nuclear weapons for many years, and Israeli atomic weapons must be destroyed and joined to safeguards.
" We gained full access to nuclear technology thanks to the efforts of our scientists. When I was the foreign minister, they talked about concrete guarantees that we should give concrete guarantees that we will not pursue nuclear weapons.
He added: "According to them, the objective determination was enrichment. With the resistance of Iran and the efforts of our scientists, we reached the point where we had 19 thousand centrifuges in rotation, the Westerners were forced to negotiate with Iran, the JCPOA was negotiated and signed, and the Westerners started not fulfilling their obligations. Until the United States withdrew from the JCPOA."
Iran's former Minister of Foreign Affairs stressed: "Today, we still have high capabilities and we are producing advanced centrifuges daily, but we are not trying to produce bombs. We have the ability but do not have the principle of producing bombs."
From the point of Islamic beliefs, we consider the production of atomic bombs as "haram" (against Sharia). Secondly, from the point of view of our leadership, we do not consider the production of bombs because if Iran goes towards nuclear weapons, naturally, other countries in the region will be in a nuclear race. They will help others to make bombs.
For this reason, we have been calling for a zone free of nuclear weapons for many years, and Israeli atomic weapons must be destroyed and joined to safeguards.
Therefore, in our opinion, nuclear weapons are not considered a deterrent power, but nuclear technology is a deterrent, Kharazi said, stressing that " Now Iran is ready to return to JCPOA. Many issues have been resolved, and only the protection issue remains; we hope this issue will be determined during the trip of IAEA's experts to Iran.
The Head of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations of Iran has said that China must compensate for commenting on Iran's territorial integrity.
Iranian former Foreign Ministery, in his speech at the 3rd edition of Tehran Dialogue Forum (TDF 2022), said: "Development requires cooperation and countries seek each other's help for Development. As a result, this should not be accompanied by the interference of foreigners. The problem is that some countries are blackmailing world powers during Development, which Iran is against.
Countries with technology can invest in the region but not intervene militarily. The region needs dialogue and must solve its problems through dialogue. We always confirm the conversation, Kharazi said.
Iranian senior diplomat said: The condition for the success of the dialogue is non-aggression, non-interference of outsiders, and the creation of a basis for dialogue, and we are fully ready for it.
Kharazi said: "Recently, the President of China visited the region. We welcome it, but the mistake that happened was entering into our country's political issues and territorial integrity. Of course, they tried to make up for the mistake, but this mistake was like us commenting on the status of Taiwan, which is part of China's territory. We hope such a mistake will not occur again and will be fully compensated.
On Sunday, 11 December 2022, Reacting to the joint statement of China and the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) and the claims over the Iranian triple islands Abu Musa, Great, and Lesser Tunbs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian wrote in a tweet on Saturday: "The triple islands Abu Musa, Great and Lesser Tunbs in the Persian Gulfs are inseparable parts of the Iranian soil and eternally belongs to Iran."
Kharazi, about the war in Ukraine, said: "We were against the war in Ukraine from the very beginning, but we observed that the Western countries were leading Ukraine to war and Russia to war with Ukraine.
NATO's attempt to move toward Russia's borders was too provocative, former Iranian FM said, adding, "Westerners and especially Americans were trying to bring Russia into this war. War is not a good thing, and Today, we still believe that the war in Ukraine should end through dialogue as soon as possible.
In the case of Iraq, this country faced many hardships in the past years. Today, we are happy that the Iraqi government has been formed, and we hope that the government will successfully organize the Iraqi issues, Kharazi said.
Finally, the senior Iranian diplomat said, "Afghanistan is our neighbor and can significantly impact our security. Our advice to the Taliban, which is ruling Afghanistan, is to fight terrorism and prevent the entry of foreign forces into Afghanistan. The US is not allowed to enter this country for various reasons.
Taliban must form an inclusive government, and all ethnic groups and religions must be involved; Kharazi said, "In Today's world if one nation rules in a country that is multi-ethnic and religious, the conflict will arise.
Denis Moncada , Nicaragua's foreign minister,
He stated at the third Tehran Dialogue Forum (TDF 2022) that the decline of the United States is near and said: "The world is changing for new goal and is on the verge of multilateralism of independent states."
"Thank you to the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and my brother Mr. Amir Abdollahian, Minister of Foreign Affairs, for organizing the third meeting in Tehran," he added.
Nicaragua's foreign minister added: "The world is changing for new goals and is on the verge of multilateralism and independent governments."
Stating that the motto of Iran's politics includes politics and neighborliness and emphasizes international law and the development of relations based on trust, he said: "We raise fair flags for the good of humanity."
Regarding the war in Ukraine, Moncada noted: "The US administration has violated international law by using the European Union and Ukraine countries as tools to attack Russia and the Russian border and has put international peace and security at risk."
The Nicaraguan FM described his country's relations with Iran as friendly, inclusive, and anti-imperialist, and emphasizing Nicaragua's support for the government and people of Iran, he said: "We believe in multilateral friendship and for peace, security, and progress."
He stated that the decline of the United States is near and the conditions are ready to stop imperialist impositions, adding that the Tehran meeting can provide an opportunity to open the way for the cooperation of the nations of the world.
Carlos Julio Ron Martinez Venezuela's Deputy Foreign Minister
Venezuela's Deputy Foreign Minister also stated in the forum that crises caused instability and war at the international level and stated: We hope that dialogues and peace will lead to the creation of a multilateralism system at the world level.
Carlos Julio Ron Martinez stated in the third forum of dialogue in Tehran. "We know that crises cause instability and war at the international level," he said.
The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela added: "We hope that dialogues and peace will be manifested in multilateralism, we must also institutionalize peace in the Latin American area."
Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulaziz bin Saleh Al Khulaifi. Assistant Foreign Minister for Regional Affairs
In a speech before the forum, he affirmed that the State of Qatar is not separated from this region and its important issues, pointing out that the State of Qatar fully believes that dialogue is the most appropriate way to resolve international disputes and strengthen relations between countries to achieve international stability and security.