“In foreign policy, when we say dignity, it means groveling the diplomacy of groveling,” Ayatollah Khamenei said during a meeting with a group of Iranian Foreign Ministry officials and ambassadors to other countries on Saturday morning.

“During these years, we have had cases where our diplomacy was, to put it accurately, the diplomacy of groveling,” he said.

The Supreme Leader hastened to add that dignity, on the other hand, means negating such kind of diplomacy and avoiding begging for the help of others.

Dignity, he went on, means Iranian diplomats should not look at what others say or how they judge and act, but “rely on our own principles.”

Ayatollah Khamenei further called on the officials to act wisely in bilateral and multilateral interactions, avoid making ill-considered comments, and think carefully before making decisions.

“Expediency means recognizing cases where flexibility can be applied,” he further noted.

“Sometimes one has to be flexible. Flexibility does not contradict principles. Maintaining the principles and showing the occasional flexibility can coexist. Flexibility can be applied in some cases,” he underlined.

The meeting was held on Saturday morning as heads of Iran’s diplomatic missions around the world gathered for a conference in Tehran.

Elsewhere in his speech, the Supreme Leader said a good foreign policy and an efficient diplomatic apparatus are among the most important pillars of a successful administration.

He enumerated six necessary rules in foreign policy, namely the ability to convincingly clarify the logic of the country’s approaches to various issues; an impactful presence in various political-economic phenomena, events and currents in the world; reducing and eliminating policies and decisions that threaten Iran; countering risk-creating environment; strengthening governments and groups that are allied and united with Iran and development of the country’s strategic depth; and the ability to recognize hidden layers in regional and global decisions and actions.

Ayatollah Khamenei also referred to Iran’s long borders with different – some influential – countries, and praised the current administration’s neighborliness policy toward them.

“Foreign hands are active in creating problems between Iran and its neighbors, and you should not allow this policy to be realized,” he said, addressing the Iranian diplomats.

“Today, cooperation and alignment of some big and important countries of the world with the Islamic Republic of Iran in some currents and basic lines of international affairs is an unprecedented phenomenon, and we should appreciate this opportunity and strengthen the relations with those countries,” he underscored.