“Three years ago I had the honor to participate in the conference organized by the Islamic republic of Iran to combat extremism and terrorism, back then I studied the initiative introduced by president Hasan Rohani to have an international dialogue between civilizations. I still have the honor to participate once again in this dialogue,” Dr. Camille Habib said in an exclusive interview on the sideline of the first international conference on cultural and literary relations of Iran and Arab countries.
According to ISNA, he added, it is imperative for both Iranian and Arab scientists to facilitate cooperation and collaboration between them because they have common enemies represented by Israel and the terrorist extremist groups as ISIS and Al-Nusra Front, so it is “important for us and for the Iranians to have this dialogue and to cooperate in all fields technological, political, economic and so on because we are facing one enemy.”
“For the last 3 years, we have been talking the importance of the dialogue between Arab and Iranians now the time has come for the both sides to find channels and put all their objective and project to the practice. It’s important to find ways for this dialogue to become fruitful in all fields of life such as scientific, cultural, and political and etc.”
He continued that on the other hand there are some problems between Arabs and Iranians over the years. He said, “The problem must be solved according to the following respect to each other’s, not to interfere in the other sides internal affairs and to respect and observe the safety of all states. I think the takeoff start from here,”
He continued: “That’s for the Arabs, for the Iranians also must understand that the Arab world is not united. There are 22 Arab countries and must deal bilaterally with each Arab country because we do not have an Arab form policy we do not have Arab unity it’s important for Iran to establish this dialogue as a general mechanism to move on to have bilateral relationship with every state.”
According to Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, he announced last week during the first conference that Iranian- Saudi cooperation was fruitful to bringing stability to Lebanon. Hopefully, this cooperation moves on to bring stability to other areas in the Middle East and actually in the Arab world especially in Syria and Iran.
Dr. Habib says the cultural relationship between Iran and Arab world goes back to a few centuries ago. “Maybe the history is much better than our present when it comes to the Arab- Iranian relationships. My prediction for the future based on the following we have one Prophet Mohammad and Palestine that bring us together,” he told ISNA.
“As I’m talking to you about the prophet Mohammad you must know that I’m a Christine Arab and I’m not a Muslim. But I believe in Islam as much as I believe in Christianity and I am Arab first and foremost and as Lebanese we are very thankful for the support that the Iranian revolution gave to Lebanon,” He stated.