Mohammad Javad Zarif Quotes

• You cannot have security at the expense of the insecurity of others.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Insecurity, Expenses, Security

  "Don’t abandon the Iran Nuclear Deal, embrace it to build regional peace" by Sam Sasan Shoamanesh, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 17, 2017.

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• If anything caused ISIS, it was the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Isis, Iraq, Invasion

  "Iran's Javad Zarif on Syria, Russia, and Donald Trump". Interview with Robin Wright, www.newyorker.com. December 18, 2015.

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• The nuclear program is not the only issue dividing Iran and the US. Iran's role in the region is also creating conflicts. For example, you support the Shiite Houthi militias in Yemen whereas the US is on the side of the coalition led by Saudi Arabia.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Support, Conflict, Program

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• Iran is a powerful country. Iran is a big country with a large population, natural resources, human resources. But we are a country that is content with its size, content with its geography. We have not engaged in any military adventures in the past 250 years. We don't see any of this as Iran trying to dominate this region. We see some people panicking in our region and we believe there is no need to panic. We are prepared to work with all our neighbors to ensure the security and prosperity of our region.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Country, Powerful, Military

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• We call upon the nuclear-weapon states to immediately cease their plans to further invest in modernizing and extending the life span of their nuclear weapons and related facilities.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Life, Nuclear, Weapons

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• Nobody thinks identically on Syria. But we share the same view with Russia that the future of the personalities in Syria will be determined by the people of Syria and not by people outside Syria.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Thinking, Russia, Views

  "Iran's Javad Zarif on Syria, Russia, and Donald Trump". Interview with Robin Wright, www.newyorker.com. December 18, 2015.

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• The Persian Gulf is our lifeline ... We will respect international navigation, for us, freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf is a must.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Freedom, Navigation, Persian

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• You know where the people who killed people in San Bernardino came from. You know where people who did 9/11 came from. You know where the people who did Paris came from, where they transited, where they went. None of them even set foot in Iran. So why are you punishing people who are visiting Iran for that? . . . We're not going to radicalize them. We never have. Your allies have radicalized people who visited.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Iran, Paris, Feet

  "Iran's Javad Zarif on Syria, Russia, and Donald Trump". Interview with Robin Wright, www.newyorker.com. December 18, 2015.

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• We've never declared war on anybody. We [Iran] defended ourselves against wars that were imposed on us. We have no desire to engage in confrontation with anybody.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  War, Iran, Desire

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• Tehran believes it's none of our business or anybody else's to decide the future of personalities in other countries.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Country, Believe, Personality

  "Iran's Javad Zarif on Syria, Russia, and Donald Trump". Interview with Robin Wright, www.newyorker.com. December 18, 2015.

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• Wake up to the real world. Look at what's happening in the region. Look at where people are going, how people react to humiliation and marginalization. I do not think a few more votes is worth making this menace - that we all face - far more complicated. People have to wake up to that and respond to that, not politicize it.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Real, Thinking, People

  "Iran's Javad Zarif on Syria, Russia, and Donald Trump". Interview with Robin Wright, www.newyorker.com. December 18, 2015.

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• Iran's military hardware is less than a fraction of that of any of the countries in this region.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Country, Military, Iran

  Source: www.newyorker.com

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• We're [Iran] not dismantling anything. We are uninstalling some centrifuges and reconstructing the Arak reactor, modernizing it. . . . The remaining activities that we need undertake will not take more than several days, less than two weeks.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Iran, Two, Needs

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• Understanding that these statements do not represent reality, we should not be threatened by the language that he has used.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Reality, Understanding, Language

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• One outcome is almost certain. Extremism stands to benefit enormously from an uncalculated adventure in Iraq.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Adventure, Iraq, Benefits

  "Iraq vows to cooperate on prohibited missiles". cnn.com. February 19, 2003.

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• We try to coordinate regularly with Russia, as well as with others - except for the United States - on what is happening in the region. And we're open to discussing with everybody the situation in Syria, because we believe it's a common threat.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Believe, Russia, Trying

  "Iran's Javad Zarif on Syria, Russia, and Donald Trump". Interview with Robin Wright, www.newyorker.com. December 18, 2015.

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• I think the most important challenge that remains is this mentality in Washington that sanctions have been an asset, and some people want to find even an excuse to keep them or an excuse to reintroduce them. I don't know whether they've looked at the record of how sanctions actually produce exactly the opposite of what they wanted to produce.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Thinking, Opposites, People

  "Iran's Javad Zarif on Syria, Russia, and Donald Trump". Interview with Robin Wright, www.newyorker.com. December 18, 2015.

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• We consider ISIS and extremism to be a threat to all of us in the region. . . . Our position is that we help the legitimate governments in the region that have representation in the United Nations. We help the Iraqi government on their request through advisers; we help the Syrian government on their request to help with advisers to fight extremists. . . . So it's both lawful and legitimate.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Fighting, Government, Isis

  "Iran's Javad Zarif on Syria, Russia, and Donald Trump". Interview with Robin Wright, www.newyorker.com. December 18, 2015.

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• It is important for everybody to insure that the process will go on, that the ceasefire will hold. Of course, there is no ceasefire against Daesh [the Islamic State], Jabhat al Nusra, and Al Qaeda.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Islamic, Important, Goes On

  "Iran's Javad Zarif on Syria, Russia, and Donald Trump". Interview with Robin Wright, www.newyorker.com. December 18, 2015.

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• So there are two separate tracks. One track is for the Syrian government and the opposition that is interested in a peaceful future of Syria to come together for national unity, for the political process. At the same time, it is a requirement for everybody to stop supporting the extremist groups, to stop allowing them safe passage, to stop allowing them to receive weapons, to stop allowing them to receive financial assistance, and to come together in actually fighting them.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Fighting, Extremist Groups, Government

  "Iran's Javad Zarif on Syria, Russia, and Donald Trump". Interview with Robin Wright, www.newyorker.com. December 18, 2015.

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• People have been fed misinformation. The fact is that the fighting that is going on on the ground in Syria is with Al Qaeda, with Jabhat al Nusra, with Daesh. The pockets, small pockets, of other groups are usually surrounded by these various extremist groups. . . . Once they stop fighting, there is nothing for the Syrian government to hit other than the terrorist organizations.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Fighting, Extremist Groups, Government

  "Iran's Javad Zarif on Syria, Russia, and Donald Trump". Interview with Robin Wright, www.newyorker.com. December 18, 2015.

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• I think we are making an assumption that that is the outcome of the negotiations. I think President Assad will be prepared to accept whatever the outcome of the intra-Syrian dialogue and the decision of the Syrian people is. But people are trying to decide and determine the outcome of the negotiation before even we agree to start the negotiations.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Thinking, People, Decision

  "Iran's Javad Zarif on Syria, Russia, and Donald Trump". Interview with Robin Wright, www.newyorker.com. December 18, 2015.

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• This visa-waiver thing is absurd. Has anybody in the West been targeted by any Iranian national, anybody of Iranian origin, or anyone travelling to Iran? Whereas many people have been targeted by the nationals of your allies, people visiting your allies, and people transiting the territory of, again, your allies. So you're looking at the wrong address.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Iran, People, Addresses

  "Iran's Javad Zarif on Syria, Russia, and Donald Trump". Interview with Robin Wright, www.newyorker.com. December 18, 2015.

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• The United States wanted to send its trained rebel groups to Syria to fight ISIS. Out of twenty-five hundred rebels they had trained, only seventy accepted to go to Syria to fight ISIS. Everybody else wanted to go to Syria to fight the government. So you've got to wake up and smell the coffee. . . . The rebel groups have not fired a shot against ISIS.

  Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Coffee, Fighting, Government

  "Iran's Javad Zarif on Syria, Russia, and Donald Trump". Interview with Robin Wright, www.newyorker.com. December 18, 2015.

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