VLADIKAVKAZ. Dec 12 (Interfax) - NATO's presence in the Middle East has been absolutely useless, Iranian Ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanaei said.
"Surely, all countries are independent and act in keeping with their national interests. As a major regional power, we are not interested in seeing countries of our regions join NATO," Sanaei told journalists when asked about Georgia's plans to join NATO.
"NATO has absolutely not been useful wherever it has come in the Middle East. The fight against drugs was discussed several days ago - and it's because of that fight that NATO entered Afghanistan. The production of drugs there has grown to 9,000 tonnes from 200 tonnes over the past 15 years," he said.
Vladikavkaz is hosting an international conference on "Iran and the North Caucasus: History and Prospects of Cooperation" on Tuesday. It is being attended by officials from Russian federal executive bodies and researchers and businesspeople from Russia and Iran. Companies from the North Caucasus and Iran are expected to sign cooperation agreements after the conference.