In a press meeting hosted by Washington Post’s David Ignatius on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded to the questions of media.
In response to a question about recent criticisms inside Iran against Zarif’s walking with US Secretary f State John Kerry in Geneva, Zarif asserted that “Iran is not a monolithic society in which variety of view exist and we like it;” he stressed that while Americans claim they cannot trust Iran, Iranian people have all the right to distrust the US who plotted 1953 coup against a democratically-elected government in Iran and supported Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in eight years of imposed war against Iran. “I give my critics any reason for being skeptical of anything I do during negotiations.”
Regarding a question about possible domestic pressure on Iranian negotiators in case of a possible failure of nuclear talks, Zarif asserted that if negotiations fail to reach a final deal, Iranian nation would blame the failure on ‘excessive demands’ of the other side. “We have made our efforts to reach a final agreement, and if it fails, the world would not come to an end.”
Zarif further criticized Ignatius for referring to Joint Plan of Action (JPOA) incorrectly and translating it into gradual removal of sanctions and reiterated that JPOA demands complete removal of sanctions as a pretext for a final agreement and rejected the idea of phase by phase removal of sanctions being considered in JPOA. “We prefer to concentrate on reaching a solution than failure; and I think everyone would better focus on solutions.”
About the crisis in the Middle East, Iranian FM highlighted the fact that problems in the region were both regional and global and that the problems demanded both regional and global solutions. Zarif slammed efforts made by some countries to exclude Iran from global efforts in regard to Syria and Iraq and expressed Tehran’s willingness to engage with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt or any other country in the region emphasizing that all the regional countries should play role in reaching a solution to the crisis in the region.
“Iran has always been an important player in the region, has always been and will remain an important player in the region and beyond; but it doesn’t mean other players are not important and should be excluded.” He went on mentioning Geneva 2 talks on Syria where some countries set exclusion of Iran as a condition for their participation whereas Iran had never set conditions, for example, to exclude Saudi Arabia for attending the event.
On David Ignatius’ mentioning of his colleague Jason Rezaeian who is under custody in Iran, Zarif expressed hope that he would be cleared of charges and go free.
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