Iranian minister says Israel should be expelled from CICA organization

Iran’s deputy legal affairs minister has called for Israel to be expelled from the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), Iranian state news broadcaster IRIB reports.

At CICA’s summit in the Azerbaijani capital Baku on Thursday, Kazem Gharibabadi said “sustainable security” in Asia was not achieved through “threats and pressure, but through mutual respect, trust-building and equal cooperation among independent states”.

“We are not warmongers, but any aggression will be met with our decisive response; no country should allow its territory to be used by aggressors to carry out armed attacks against my country,” he said.

“If the international community does not stop America and Israel today, their aggression will spread to all independent countries. The most important source of insecurity and instability in Asia, especially in West Asia, is the Zionist (Israeli) regime; it is time for this regime to be expelled from the CICA mechanism,” Gharibabadi added.