Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says emerging “regional agreements and arrangements could herald the beginning of a new phase, in which Muslim neighbours rely on their own capabilities instead of foreign powers and choose cooperation and brotherhood over exhausting rivalries”, Al Jazeera reports citing the IRIB state broadcaster.

He adds that recent developments have shown that foreign powers are neither capable of providing lasting security for the region nor willing to do so, noting that security based on the presence and intervention of foreign powers is “fragile and dependent”, while security built on cooperation among regional countries could be sustainable.