“The US president's threat to destroy Iranian cultural centers is a prime example of international ‘cultural terrorism’,” Zarif said in his address to a local conference on preservation of cultural centers and common human heritage.
He also noted the US’ economic terrorism by imposing severe sanctions on Iran, and the state terrorism in which the US forces assassinated Iranian top commander Lt. Gen. Soleimani.
“The ISIL terrorists destroyed the cultural heritage of Iraq and Syria in 2014 and 2015. Now, Donald Trump, in a gross violation of the UN Charter, not only threatens Iran with an armed attack, but also publicly speaks of an attack on Iranian historical and cultural sites,” Zarif added.
The Iranian diplomat then talked about the dangers of unilateralism, saying “unilateralism and violations of laws are just as dangerous as others tolerating them.”
“Unfortunately, the passive stance of countries and international organizations toward Trump's unilateralism and violations of laws has made him more inclined to pursue a global bullying policy. In other words, ‘passive unilateralism’ encourages ‘active unilateralism’,” he added.
“Those countries that have bowed to Trump’s unilateralism and law violations to protect themselves from his aggression, have ultimately paved the way for that aggression against themselves,” said Zarif, referring to the US’ sanctions on the Nord Stream project, threats of increasing European auto tariffs, as well as other tariffs for Europeans due to what Zarif described as EU’s passivity toward the US’ withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the bloc’s ‘illegal’ and ‘racist’ use of the Article 36 in the JCPOA.
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