Croatia’s NATO membership will benefit Iran

[Annihilator9112]

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=177041


Croatia’s NATO membership will benefit Iran
Tehran Times Political Desk

TEHRAN, Sept. 3 (MNA) -– Croatia’s President Stjepan Mesic said on Wednesday his country’s decision to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will not jeopardize its relations with the Islamic Republic.

“In my opinion, Croatia’s membership in NATO or the European Union will not have any negative effect on Tehran-Zagreb relations,” Mesic said in a meeting with a group of Iranian journalists.

On the contrary, Iran will have the opportunity to develop closer relations with the EU through Croatia, he opined.

“Our decision to join NATO is due to some problems we have with some of our neighbors. For example a Serb party imagines that half of Croatia and Bosnia are part of Serbia’s territory. This shows that some groups have not yet given up their desire to extend territory.”

Mesic also said he plans to visit Iran in the near future.

i still dont see how this will benifit iran, really i cant...

[Mu-Meson]

I can't understand why Croatia would care much about keeping good relations with Iran. Oil? Croatia doesn't have a significant Muslim population, nor exactly lots of Iranians. Does it have many investments in Iran? Seems like the "Tehran Times" is just trying to make it look like some countries in Europe give a fig about what Iran thinks of them.

[ekranoplan]

Mesic is a President of RH. President of RH is institution which basically has a job of Croatia's promoter in a world and represents our country as a factor in a global understanding and peace. This we decided is the best way for a country like ours to represent itself abroad. Keeping as many diplomatic relations and acting as a would be mediator is also a great way for puny country like ours to get some global respect. This is not his original idea since it originated in Tito's Yugoslavia and the idea of out-of-blocks foreign policy. This was also the case with SO conflict where Mesic decided against breaking ties with Russia just for the sake of NATO membership. If he did, he would have done it day before EU decided not to, and we would have looked like bunch of morons. Anyhoo, weather Mesic does a good job or not can be disputed.

Croatia had and still has good relations with Gaddafi and Libya and we helped Libya and Europe to get closer economically, we also have good relations with Iran... and with other countries western world might consider awkward or hostile. This relations are mainly cultural and economic and so far have proven only useful for us.

[Zombie Squad]

Croatia and Iran have storng bilateral relations between each other. Iran became 7th country to recognize Croatia. Croatia has an embassy in Tehran and Iran maintains an embassy and a cultural center in Zagreb. Croatia also have a oilcompany in Iran.