Baku, Azerbaijan, March 1
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called on the country's defence ministry to export its military products to the other countries, Iran's state-owned IRINN TV channel reported on March 1.
The president made the remarks during a meeting with senior Iranian military officials in Tehran.
Rouhani went on to say that weapon trade is important in terms of foreign relations with other countries.
This kind of trade develops semi-strategic ties between countries, he added.
Iranian president also remarked that the country's development is impossible without security.
Rouhani said "defence diplomacy" can be effective in both creating better relations with the world and conducting deterrence.
He stressed the importance of deterrence in Iran's military strategy, saying that "the armed forces should pay attention to prevention of threats against the country, but they also should be ready to confront any possible attacks by the enemies".
Rouhani added that Iran's deterrence strategy is based on military equipments including missiles, UAVs, trained army and people's support as well.
"Our behaviour is also important in deterrence," he said, adding that "threatening does not only mean firing missiles or conducting military exercises. Sometimes your speech style maybe also considered as a threat against other countries. Even if you don't intend to fight, your words will be deemed as threat".
Iran's foreign policy is based on peace and confidence-building with the world, he remarked.
Iran does not deal on its honour, independence, national interests and values, Rouhani said, adding that within these redlines Iran is ready to negotiate and cooperate with all countries.
Referring to Iran's military redlines Rouhani said that manufacturing mass destruction weapons is Iran's redline.
The Islamic Republic rejects the manufacture of nuclear weapons because it is out of principle, not because it is prevented by international conventions such as Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) agreement, Rouhani said.
He added that if Iran wanted to have mass destruction weapons, it would have been easier for it to make chemical or biological weapons.
The U.S. and its Western allies suspect Iran of developing a nuclear weapon, something Iran denies. The Islamic Republic has on numerous occasions stated that it does not seek to develop nuclear weapons, using nuclear energy for medical research instead.
Iran and the P5+1 reached a nuclear agreement on November 24, 2013. Iran has agreed to curb some of its nuclear activities for six months in return for sanctions relief. Iran and the P5+1 group have agreed to implement the agreement starting from Jan. 20.