Exclusive Interview with Ali Shamkhani, Rear Admiral Upper Half, military advisor to and delegate of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and secretary of the Supreme Na-tional Security Council.

Ali Shamkhani is the secretary of the highest security-political organization in the Islamic Repub-lic of Iran, i.e. the "Supreme National Security Council”. He plays a very remarkable role in both proposing and legislating defensive, security and political strategies of the country.  The most important strategic decisions of the country in internal, security and foreign policy equations are made in the Supreme National Security Council and the sanctioned laws, after the approval of the Supreme Leader, is considered as absolute laws. In addition to being a member of this coun-cil, Shamkhani is, as one of the two Supreme Leader's delegates, and by the President's decree, the chairman of the council, too. Therefore, he plays the role of coordinator among the political, security and military systems for solving the difficult and multi-layered problems. He is a reputa-ble and prestigious in strategic fields; the one who integrates knowledge with experience, realistic worldview and rational grounds to assess global transformations and offer approaches to pass by the challenges. Admiral Shamkhani believes that America's behavioral pattern in irrational sup-port of Tel Aviv stems from the White House's deep apprehensions about the Zionist regime's future, and believes that what goes on in West Asia signals to augmentation of Israel's security crises. He pointed to the fact that Palestine is now more prepared and equipped with all the mili-tary facilities and missiles, and thus more prepared to defense the Palestine's ideal, and then as-serted that: "the Zionist regime can't hide its worries and weaknesses against the resistance mis-siles." He is of the opinion that the Islamic Republic of Iran's foreign policy is based on good re-lations with all the countries and constructive interaction with the international organization in-cluding the United Nations. He calls attention to the fact that the Islamic Republic of Iran's con-structive interaction has modified and adjusted other regional states' approach to our country to a great extent and has improved the position of our country in the region. He emphasizes on the importance of this constructive interaction and points out that dialogue with the neighbors can be the best option of getting over this regional security challenges. He maintains that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been totally honest in friendship with its neighbors and is not seeking find-ing a way into other countries and meddling in their affairs. The secretary of the Supreme Na-tional Security Council criticized the US for withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (BARJAM) and said that America's withdrawal from this Plan has initiated a whole other series of transformations. He remarked that Trump is laboring under the delusion that he can im-pose his irrational and hegemonial demands on Iranian people by the use of economic pressure, and added that "at this point, the US isn't even capable of convincing other countries to impose sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Iran". He also said that "during the last forty years, Iranian people have been able to counteract all the US sabotages and obstructions and make them inef-fective, will also defeat America this time merely by relying on all the internal powers".

The Tehran Foreign Policy Studies Quarterly had an exclusive interview with admiral Shamkhani and asked him the most important questions of our current foreign policy and the present situa-tion in West Asia. We sincerely thank him for taking the time to talk with us and invite all the dear readers to read the whole interview.

Visits: 1147