Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi has called for stronger unity among Muslim countries, saying the era of the United States’ dominance and hegemony has come to an end with the rise of emerging powers.
Raeisi made the remarks in a meeting with a group of Indonesian people at the Islamic Center of the Southeast Asian country’s capital of Jakarta on Tuesday.
Raeisi pointed to Islam's call for unity and described unity and cohesion as two strategies used by the Islamic Ummah against enemies’ divisive policies. “Muslim countries ... should have very close relations with each other."
He said that enemies seek to foment various types of sedition in Muslim countries, adding, “The enemy, once with the creation of Daesh, another time through the media empire, and once by insulting the Holy Prophet, etc. looks to create disunity in the Islamic Ummah.”
The Iranian president said the hegemonic system is after the continuation of its dominance across the world.
“Today, the reason behind opposition to the Islamic Republic [of Iran] is that the Islamic Republic does not want to abide by the hegemonic system," he said.
"With the rise of emerging powers, the era of the US dominance and the hegemonic system has come to an end,” he added.
Raeisi rejected the US and the West's claims about democracy as a lie and said, “If you are looking for democracy, let the Palestinians determine their own fate. Let people in Yemen and Afghanistan decide for themselves, why are you interfering in their affairs?”
The Iranian president added that Western countries, and the US in particular, are not after democracy, "they are looking for hegemony and plundering the wealth of nations.”
Earlier in the day, Raeisi arrived in the Indonesian capital on an official two-day visit aimed at enhancing the Islamic Republic's relations with the Southeast Asian country in political and economic arenas.
Heading a high-ranking political-economic delegation, the Iranian president was officially welcomed by his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo shortly after his arrival.
Raeisi held meetings with the speakers of the House of Representatives and the People's Consultative Assembly of Indonesia. He will also meet with Iranian and Indonesian businessmen, hold talks with Indonesian scholars and thinkers, and meet with Iranians residing in Indonesia.