TEHRAN - In the wake of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) forged between Iran and the 5+1 group, there has been a flurry of foreign visits to Iran.

Among others, European countries have been dispatching their highest-ranking officials and largest trade delegations to Iran, with Denmark being one of the pioneering of these. Considering this, Danish Foreign Affairs Minister Kristian Jensen, heading a strong trade delegation, arrived in Tehran in early January to look into expansion of bilateral ties between Iran and Denmark.

After two days of tight schedule and before his departure to Denmark, Mr. Jenson shared his take on the visit in an exclusive interview with the Tehran Times. In what follows, the second part of the interview, political in nature, has been presented. The first part was published on January 7 with an economic focus.

Q: Mr. Minister, what’s your perception of the role of Iran in the Middle East considering the region’s instability? Particularly, what do expect from Iran after signing nuclear accord with global powers?
A: I think Iran is a key player in understanding the Middle East and in promoting peace in the region. I feel very positive to see that Iran singed the nuclear deal in Vienna during the summer, hoping this will be a first step for Iran to take a larger responsibility in creating peace and prosperity in the region. Iran is a key player and is so both in scaling conflicts up and scaling conflicts down, and therefore it’s much more likely that now Iran takes its historical role in the Middle East as a source of peace and prosperity.
Q: What role can the Europeans play in the fight against terrorists, especially Daesh?
A: The European Union is playing a role in many of the areas and routes we are fighting Daesh. We are fighting Daesh with economic tools to stop the financing of Daesh. We are fighting Daesh in order to stop foreign fighters joining the terrorist group. We fight Daesh by documenting the atrocities, the killing and the slaughtering of the innocent people by the terrorist group and we do so in order to counter the group’s propaganda. And, last but not least, lately we have been fighting Daesh by military means.
EU as a whole is active in the four roles but not so when it comes to military involvement. There are individual countries that are part of global coalitions against Daesh and Denmark is one of those countries, where my country has been involved in direct fighting against the terrorist group. We have been there with our F16 fighters. We have also been there, actively training Iraqi troops in modern ways of warfare, how to use equipment, and how to use tactics. Danish soldiers have been active in training Iraqi forces for over a year and we have just decided to prolong the period where we give the opportunity of more training to more Iraqi forces.
Q: In an interview you had with a Danish newspaper in November, you proposed that after fighting Daesh in Iraq, you would also plan to attack the group’s strongholds in Syria but after some rest in 2016. Don’t you think this delay will give the terrorist group enough time to equip themselves again?
Q: Yes, but unfortunately, Denmark is a small country and we have been very active with our air force in Iraq while we have been contributing to Baltic countries that have found themselves threatened by Russia. We have been air-policing for Island in the Greenland, as well. So, the Danish air force needed a period of time to get back home for new training. Also, attacks in Syria and Iraq are two different tasks. Therefore, our air force required further training to be ready to go back to Syria. If we were ready today, Denmark would be willing to operate attacks also in Syria. So, we don’t wish to delay anything; it’s only a necessary step to train our forces to make sure that both our fighters and pilots are ready for the new tasks. So, actually, we are now active in fighting Daesh in ways we can and we will be more active in 2016 when Danish pilots and fighters are ready to help.
Q: Some politicians believe that the European Union is facing serious challenges in its recent history. Among these crises is the increasing influx of Syrian refugees to Europe. Moreover, Turkey, as a neighbor to Europe, is being pushed toward a crisis as evidenced by bomb blasts in Ankara, which some see it as a consequence of President Erdogan’s policy toward the conflict in Syria. How is the European Union going to address these challenges?
A: Over the past ten years, Europe has been challenged as never before. First, was the financial crisis in 2007, when the Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian economies preformed very bad. But now the economy is doing better, not good, but better. And just after that, the immigration crisis started, and this year we have Britain, mulling over exiting the European Union. That’s why I am saying Europe is being challenged like never before.
The thing is that when the Union has been challenged, it has always being able to pull itself out of the crisis, transforming itself into an even more dynamic cooperation. In the mid-1980s, we had an economic crisis when the EU decided to form the internal market. It first did it in 1992, but it was in the mid of the 1980s during the deepest crisis of the EU at that time that we decided to move forwards and I think Europe this time will decide to move forwards, as well.
We will find a way out of the crisis and will be a strong union again. As for the migration crisis, we need to do three things. We need right now to strengthen border control measures, including controlling the borders we share with Turkey in order to make sure we know who is coming into Europe. That’s one of the first things we can do right now as an emergency plan.
Within a short-time framework, we need to do more to help refugees in regional countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and even Iran, which hosts already a large number of Afghan refugees. So, we need to do more to help refugees remain close to their home countries. In the long-run, we need to develop more economic cooperation with countries in the Middle East including Jordan, Lebanon, and hopefully also Iraq and then with Syria when peace comes to the country. We need to develop economic cooperation with Tunisia, Algeria, Mali, and Burkina Faso, for example, because if we don’t have economic growth in these countries, young peoples of these countries will look to Europe and say I don’t have a future in my own country and I will go to Europe. So, the refugee crisis is one issue that we need to deal with and migration is even farther greater challenge we need to address. So, there are many challenges we need to face in the coming years. But Europe will find a way through and we will see a completely different Europe. So, I will do think we will find a way through.
Coming back to your question about Turkey, I should say Turkey is a key player in the stability of the Middle East. Also, the country is a key player for the European Union. They are a member of NATO, neighbor to Europe, and a close partner, as well.
It has been difficult for us to find out where the partnership and Erdogan going. He had the idea of transforming the constitution so as to have a much stronger presidency. He didn’t win the elections not the first time and not the second time that he would dream of. But now we have a government in Turkey, we can do business and partnership with and even though the partnership is sometimes troublesome, and I think it is still necessary. The EU and Turkey can make a platform from which we can build the future. But naturally, Turkey is a country with many many challenges including the war in Syria and the conflict with the Kurdish community, where I recommend those Kurdish organizations and the Turkish government come back to the negotiation table. It was a bold move to start negotiations with the Kurds and I’m very very sorry that the Turkish government has decided to leave the path and get back to the conflict.
Q: What do you think about the downing of the Russian Su24 by Turkey’s air force, given that Turkey is a member of NATO?
A: I think the countries should be very aware of violating national airspace. Denmark as well as many other northern European countries have experienced Russia violating their national airspace and we have protested peacefully against this to Russia. But Russia knew that the violation of the Turkish airspace would be a source of conflict. We spoke to the Turks and told them scale down and find a peaceful way to work with Russia. We are also saying to Russia that you must accept the serenity of the airspace; it goes for Denmark as it goes for Turkey and all other countries that experience Russian airplanes violating their airspaces. My hope and desire is that Russia will come into cooperation with the allies including Turkey and focus on fighting against Daesh so that the conflict between the two countries could be set aside and all countries should focus on fighting Daesh because they are the source of instability, they are the source of terrorism not only in Europe but also in the streets of Beirut, and over the Sinai desert. All countries should form alliances to focus on Daesh and drop bombs on them and Russian planes could be of huge help in that.

Highlight:

“Iran is a key player and is so both in scaling conflicts up and scaling conflicts down and therefore, it’s much more likely that now Iran takes its historical role in the Middle East as a source of peace and prosperity.”

“All countries should focus on fighting Daesh because they are the source of instability, they are the source of terrorism not only in Europe but also in the streets of Beirut, and over the Sinai desert.