The Diplomat
Iran’s ambassador to Madrid, Hassan Ghashghavi, held a meeting last Tuesday at the Centro Superior de Estudios de la Defensa Nacional (Ceseden) with commanders and officers of that organisation, to explain Tehran’s position in the war in Ukraine.
Hassan Ghashghavi, according to the official Iranian news agency IRNA, stressed to the Spanish military that the Islamic Republic of Iran maintains a policy of “active neutrality” in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and urges all parties to resolve disputes through diplomacy.
The ambassador emphasised that Tehran has been calling for an immediate end to the war in Ukraine since it began on 24 February 2022.
Ghashghavi was invited to address the Ceseden commanders and officers by the centre’s director, Lieutenant General Francisco de Paula Bisbal Pons. This is not the first time the ambassador has addressed the body, as he also did so in 2019, shortly after his arrival in Spain.
In his speech on Tuesday, the ambassador also addressed other aspects of Iran’s foreign policy, such as his country’s nuclear programme, Iranian influence in West Asia, the relationship with Saudi Arabia and events in Syria and Yemen.
Regarding Tehran’s nuclear enrichment programme, Ghashghavi said that Iran is trying to turn to clean energy sources to meet its growing electricity needs.
The ambassador claimed that the West neglected its commitments to build nuclear power plants in Iran and provide legal guarantees to supply fuel for its nuclear power plants and research reactors, and that this is why Iran decided to enrich uranium on its own.
