Islamabad MoU became declaration of US defeat: Qalibaf

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf says the Islamabad memorandum of understanding “became a declaration of America’s defeat,” emphasizing that the agreement was not the result of pressure but of Iran’s resistance and dignity.

Speaking Wednesday at the 20th Conference of the Parliamentary Union of OIC Member States in Baku, Azerbaijan, Qalibaf said the MoU demonstrated that dialogue succeeds when the other side abandons attempts to impose its will on a civilized nation.

“The Islamabad memorandum of understanding became a declaration of America’s defeat,” he stated.

Qalibaf emphasized that the fierce resistance of Iran’s Armed Forces and the people’s heroic stand imposed heavy costs on the US and the “fake Israeli regime.”

He noted that the war was not merely a military confrontation but “an organized effort to change regional strategic balances and impose will upon a free nation.”

The United States and Israel launched an unprovoked war against Iran on February 28, assassinating the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and several senior commanders.

“The Iranian nation proved that the era of imposing will upon independent nations has ended, and you saw how the world admired this perseverance and victory,” Qalibaf told the assembly.

He said that sustainable peace comes not from submission and pressure but from “dignity, power, and respect.”

While acknowledging the high costs of the war, he said it revealed the fundamental truth that “resistance and the people’s steadfastness disrupt the calculations of aggressors in the most difficult circumstances.”

Qalibaf added that the Islamabad agreement was “a memorandum that showed dialogue yields results when the other side refrains from imposing its will on a civilized nation and accepts our rights.”

The Parliament speaker also called for regional security to be ensured by regional countries themselves, stating that “no country in the region will find its security in the insecurity of others.”

He said the region’s future is “not in confrontation but in interaction; not in elimination but in coexistence; not in imported security but in indigenous and shared security.”

Qalibaf reaffirmed Iran’s readiness to expand cooperation with all Islamic countries based on mutual respect, non-interference, and good neighborliness, adding that Iran fully supports practical initiatives for joint economic, commercial, and security mechanisms.

Turning to Palestine, he said “no sustainable security architecture in West Asia can be formed without a just resolution of the Palestinian issue,” adding that “peace built on injustice will have fragile stability.”

He concluded by describing the defense of Palestinian rights as “not merely a defense of a historical cause but a defense of the logic that justice and stability are two sides of the same coin.”

The conference is being held under the theme “Promoting Sustainable and Inclusive Economic Development in OIC Member States through Parliamentary Cooperation,” with nine parliament speakers, parliamentary representatives, and high-ranking delegations from Islamic countries.