Mohammad Javad Zarif sat in his office in Foreign Ministry in Tehran along with Talal Salman and Faiz Aj-jour, Assafir interviewers to answer the newspaper’s questions on the regional developmen, published on Saturday.
“President Rouhani’s visit to Italy was planned to start with a visit to Vatican, to appreciate Pope Francis’ positions voiced recently in support of nations’ inalienable rights to freedom; serious threats loom the region, and this is not only Syria that is a target of terrorism,” he told Assafir.
Zarif also played down the role of Vienna talks in bringing a modicum of success to the situation in Syria; “participants in Vienna underestimate the threat looming around the Middle East, especially the US officials are not serious enough, since they do support the Zionist Regime; the Europeans, on the other hand, are keen at cooperation with us, and our position is in harmony with Russia’s positions on Syria; we do not seek pretext to escalate the conflict with the US or others, however, US policies in the region cross the Israel; we do not seek fighting, but our Arab brothers take for granted this imaginary conflict and entertain another Camp David (détente with Israel),” Zarif told Assafir interviewers.
On ISIL, Zarif deplored the view by some countries in the region who felt that terrorist groups such as ISIL is their puppets, and actively provided support for them; “the question is who buys oil from ISIL, and who arms Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham terrorists,” he asked rhetorically.
He also denied that Iran supported Shias against Sunnis in the region; “I would say however that it was Jordan’s King Abdullah who for the first time raised the issue of Shia Crescent,” Zarif asserted, adding that with situations in shambles in the region, he would not expect improvements in relations with the US anytime soon.
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