“Without people, we are nothing and with this people we are everything. This is a principle on which the Islamic Republic is based. We could preserve our independence, security, and tranquility through reliance on the people,” Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a conference dubbed “40 Years of Foreign Policy Since the Islamic Republic,” attended by foreign ambassadors and former Iranian foreign ministers in Tehran on Tuesday afternoon.
Zarif also said that the Iranian government officials should be at the service of the noble people of Iran at the advice of the late Leader of the Islamic Revolution Imam Khomeini.
The foreign minister added that the Iranian foreign policy since the 1979 revolution has been based on two pillars of ‘internalism’ while at the same time ‘externalism.’
He added that internalism in Iran’s foreign policy, which means relying on domestic resources, has roots in Iran’s long history of struggle with foreign intervention in its internal affairs.
The Iranian top diplomat further said that no country has been conspired against as much as Iran, calling on the western countries to give up their policy of putting pressures on the Iranian nation in order to achieve their goals.
Zarif said that the policy of inflicting pressures against Iran will get nowhere as history has shown, adding that putting pressures will not motivate Iran to come to the negotiating table.
The Iranian top diplomat, however, said that Iran will respond positively to calls for talks when it is treated with respect.
He went to note that Iranians seek engagement with outside world, while adding that Iran does not accept foreign domination in the region nor it wants to dominate the region itself.
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