He made the remarks Thursday morning in Tehran at a local conference held at Tehran University of Medical Sciences.
In the global realm, what everyone agrees on is that the world is experiencing a substantial change, said Zarif, adding, once there were just two powers of the East and West and military power was the most important element. But now the world is transforming, he noted.
“This does not mean that West is no longer important, rather it means that West is not everything.”
Those who are fascinated by the West think that everything lies in there and that it is impossible to live without it, and some also hate the West, Zarif said, adding that both these groups see the West as the center of the world while this is not the case.
Science, technology, public trust, and independence are the foundations of power, and military indicators no longer determine the status of countries, said the foreign minister, noting that some countries such as UAE have not understood this fact and pose this question that why they have no status in the region despite having so many weapons.
This year alone, Western countries sold weapons worth $100 billion to Persian Gulf states while Iran’s military budget is at $16 billion, Zarif added. “So why these countries are so worried about Iran?” he posed, then answering, “this is because we derive our security from the people.”
Iran’s security and development is originated from inside but this does not mean that we should not have ties with other countries, he said.
“If we didn’t enjoy independence, Mr. Trump and others could say that ‘if we hadn’t supported Iran, Iranians would have had spoken Chinese or Russian’ but they cannot say this.”
During the past 40 years, the United States has put all effort to hurt the Islamic Republic and their last effort was in Warsaw conference which also ended with a big failure since the world is no longer West-oriented, he said, highlighting that Iran’s independence is the most important reason behind US defeats.
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