Top 17 Mohammad Javad Zarif Quotes

I’m not that worried about war. Insecurity is the word I would use – insecurity and tension and conflict. I thought civilized people had abandoned wars. Sometimes people don’t make rational decisions.

That’s the problem with the United States. It believes it can control everybody‘s behavior.

The Iranian people are known for adhering to their undertakings. We have been tested by history. We’re an old civilization. We’ve been tested by history. We haven‘t aggressed upon any country for 250 years. This is a history that I’m proud of.

Nuclear talks are not about nuclear capability. They are about Iranian integrity and dignity.

Maybe the future of Syria will not be a presidential system where one person will have all the power, so, the discussion about who should and should not rule Syria will become irrelevant. Let the Syrian people decide.

If we can ascertain and show to our people that the West is ready to deal with Iran on the basis of mutual respect and mutual interests and equal footing, then it will have an impact on almost every aspect of Iran’s foreign policy behavior – and some aspects of Iran’s domestic policy.

I have disagreements with some and more agreements with others. But that doesn’t mean I cannot listen to those I disagree with.

In order to practice dialogue, you need to be able to set aside your assumptions and try to listen more than you want to talk. It’s not always politically correct to be able to do that, but it can give you a better sense of the reality.

Iran has not invaded any other country. We have not threatened to use force. Just exactly the opposite of Israel. Israel threatens to use force against Iran almost on a daily basis. And it has a record.

Iran is not interested in a war. Iran is capable of defending itself and teaching a very harsh lesson to anybody who commits aggression against Iran, but we’re not interested.

Iran is not about building nuclear weapons. We don’t wanna build nuclear weapons. We don’t believe that nuclear weapons bring security to anybody, certainly not to us.

It’s almost impossible to have security at the expense of insecurity of others. It’s almost impossible to have prosperity when there is a huge problem of poverty and backwardness all over the world.

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

We hope that Saudi Arabia can come to terms with its neighbours, end the hostilities – which can only produce hatred in Yemen – and live peacefully with their neighbours. They cannot blame everything on Iran.

I have no problem saying that I have differences in policy with the United States.

It is time for Iran and other stakeholders to begin to address the causes of tension in the wider Persian Gulf region. We need a sober assessment of the complex and intertwined realities here and consistent policies to deal with them. The fight against terror is a case in point.

If you look at the developments in the international scene over the past many years, we haven’t been able to resolve many problems and many crises, because we have approached them from a zero-sum perspective. My gain has always been defined as somebody else‘s loss, and through that, we never resolve problems.