The Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who has attended the first Conference of Asian Cultural Dialogues referred to the insulting language the US President has used about certain nations and added “unfortunately, today the head of government in the US is so ignorant as to use the foulest language about the nations, which is quite unacceptable and even unbelievable.”
“Such vulgar language has been spoken by someone who calls himself the head of the government. Such a culture, perspective and paradigm blocks the way toward constructive dialogue,” he added.
Iran’s Foreign minister highlighted the joint international endeavor to build a better world and said “we have no way but to engage in dialogues based upon mutual respect and the effort to arrive at a common understanding.”
Elsewhere in his speech, Mohammad Javad Zarif called Asia the cradle of culture and civilization and lamented the fact that today, it is stricken with crises, conflicts and massacre.
Zarif said that to guarantee security for oneself through depriving another of it will eventually lead to the disruption of one’s own security.
“We simply imagine that we are living in security today. Forming coalitions, eliminating others and making enemies are methods imposed by world powers on the world, which have inevitably pushed the world toward antagonism, animosity, extremism and conflict,” he added.
Zarif stressed that in order to be rid of this destructive paradigm of ‘elimination and forming coalitions’ which has brought about nothing but insecurity and massacre, we need to replace it with a new paradigm of ‘dialogues’ which is based on inclusion and general participation in a process of mutual discussion and interaction.
He then highlighted the role of culture as a factor that can contribute to security and said “the extremism that is taking control of Asia, specifically West Asia, does not have to resort to military confrontation. A more stable and fundamental approach extremism is resorting to is cultural confrontation which attempts to provoke hatred and fear in order to secure its position.”
He said that cultural dialogue is essential for challenging the theoretical bases of extremism and added “I believe that the Conference of Asian Cultural Dialogues is timely, vital and inevitable and we need to have such conferences so that Asia can serve its traditional role as the forerunner of culture and civilization and save the world from the fierce storms battering it.”
BS/IRN82793955
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