The Government of Iran, if asked, would serve both as a mediator in the Israeli-Arab conflict and as a protector of a settlement that would be achieved, according to Iranian Ambassador Ardeshir Zahedl, While Iran supports Arab demands for possession of Jerusalem, the logic of the situation calls for internalization of the Holy City, the envoy told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“How many Jews are there in the world?” he asked the reporter, “About 14 million.” was the response. “Let’s say 15 million — say 50 million. We’ll give them 35 million more,” the envoy said, “How many Moslems are there?” he questioned again. “Seven hundred-fifty-million?” he added, answering his own question. “Let’s say 500 million. We’ll reduce the number, How many Christians are there? A billion two-hundred-fifty million? Let’s say a billion. What’s the logic? All three have an interest in the city (Jerusalem). Internationalization is the answer,”
Whether the Ambassador was thinking of internationalization in terms of proportions of population of the three religious faiths did not develop in the course of the short conversation.
The Zahedl interview followed a luncheon with diplomatic correspondents here at which the chief guest was Iranian Minister for Finance, Husang Ansary, after he signed a $12 million trade agreement between Iran and the United States here.
IRAN ACCEPTS ISRAEL’S EXISTENCE
Ansary’s remarks principally concerned oil and investments, However, in response to a JTA request for his assessment of the Middle East situation, Ansary, using direct plain language, said that “we do accept Israel’s existance” that UN Resolution 242 “is the only solution for peace in the area,” that the Palestinians “have a right to exist” and that “Israel made mistakes in the past” and would have been “better off” to have engaged in negotiations four or five years ago. He praised the U.S. for its “evenhanded policy” and wished Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger “well on his trip,”
Ansary also said that Iran was never a party to any oil embargo, It has been a country tolerant of creed, color and human beings for a thousand years, “It acknowledges the right of all nations on earth to exist in the context of the United Nations” and that as the Shah has said when Iran loads oil in tankers “we don’t ask their destination.”
Afterwards, when JTA asked him specifically whether Iran would ship oil to Israel in emergency situations, like war, and use Iranian tankers for those shipments, Ansary responded that Iran has only two tankers and “Israel would not have any trouble getting tankers.”
Ansary emphasized that when the Six-Day War broke out, the Shah was “the first leader in the world with the demand for return of occupied territory.” He said that “We accept the existence of Israel at the same time that we have condemned any country — big or small — to take land by force.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
