DUSHANBE, February 6, 2013, Asia-Plus — A claim by Ayatollah Seyed Mohammad Bagher Kharrazi that in case of his victory in this year’s presidential election in Iran he will allegedly return all the territories that had separated from Iran, including Tajikistan, without bloodshed is absurd and there ought not to take it seriously, prominent Tajik public and religious figure, Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda, told Asia-Plus in an interview.
“Under political realities that emerged in the modern world, everybody realizes unreality of such statements,” Turajonzoda noted.
“Indeed, one time Central Asia and the Caucasus had been part of the Persian Empire but to say today that it is possible to unite former territories of the Persian Empire into one state is, to put it mildly, craziness, Turajonzoda concluded.
MP Shodi Shabdolov, who is also leader of the Communist Party of Tajikistan (CPT), called a statement by Iranian cleric ‘absurd.’ He refrained from commenting on it.
According to Iranian website http://cheshmandaz.org, Ayatollah Seyed Mohammad Bagher Kharrazi stated on February 5 that if he becomes President of Iran he will return to Iran Tajikistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan that had separated from it. He noted that he intends to participate in presidential election that will take place in Iran in June this year. “I will return these territories to Iran without bloodshed,” Seyed Mohammad Bagher Kharrazi.
Seyed Mohammad Bagher Kharrazi is secretary general of Iran”s Hezbollah group.
The Associated Press reported in May, 2010, that Ayatollah Seyed Mohammad Bagher Kharrazi calls for ‘Greater Iran’ – Shi’ite Islamic union would stretch from Afghanistan to Israel. He reportedly said the creation of what he termed an “Islamic United States” is a central aim of the political party he leads – called Hezbollah, or Party of God. Seyed Mohammad Bagher Kharrazi added that he hoped to make his vision a reality if the party won the next presidential election. “The Islamic United States will be an introduction to the formation of the global village of the oppressed and that will be a prelude to the single global rule of the Mahdi,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.
