Zarif Slams Foreign Meddling, Arms Sales in Region
TEHRAN (Dispatches) - Iran’s Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif has slammed Western countries for their unjustified presence and intervention in the Middle East and for selling weapons to regional regimes.
Speaking at a conference in Tehran on Iran’s legal and international claims related to the eight-year Iraqi war on Iran during the 1980s, Zarif said United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 598 (1987) includes an important Article on regional security that was added to the document at the request of the Islamic Republic.
"We should tell those who accuse us of misbehaving in the region that you are the ones who have created misery in our region…You are the ones who came to this region and are committing murder and causing destruction” in the Middle East, he said.
"Why should the region need 100 billion dollars in weapons sales a year? 25 percent of the world’s arms trade takes place in our region, and everyone is involved. Now, France wants to try to use the gap that may have been created between Saudi Arabia and the United States to sell more weapons to Saudi Arabia, and this has become a concern for regional security. Who do you think you are fooling?” Zarif added.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the top Iranian diplomat said the 1980-88 war that Iraq imposed on Iran amounted to an act of aggression, during which the regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein committed war crimes against the Iranian nation.
There is no doubt that Saddam’s invasion of Iran violated the peremptory norms of international law, Zarif said, adding, "A widespread military attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran, a country that had just entered the stage of building the state following the Revolution…, is both a criminal and aggressive act. It has aggressive intentions and no justification.”
Speaking at a conference in Tehran on Iran’s legal and international claims related to the eight-year Iraqi war on Iran during the 1980s, Zarif said United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 598 (1987) includes an important Article on regional security that was added to the document at the request of the Islamic Republic.
"We should tell those who accuse us of misbehaving in the region that you are the ones who have created misery in our region…You are the ones who came to this region and are committing murder and causing destruction” in the Middle East, he said.
"Why should the region need 100 billion dollars in weapons sales a year? 25 percent of the world’s arms trade takes place in our region, and everyone is involved. Now, France wants to try to use the gap that may have been created between Saudi Arabia and the United States to sell more weapons to Saudi Arabia, and this has become a concern for regional security. Who do you think you are fooling?” Zarif added.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the top Iranian diplomat said the 1980-88 war that Iraq imposed on Iran amounted to an act of aggression, during which the regime of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein committed war crimes against the Iranian nation.
There is no doubt that Saddam’s invasion of Iran violated the peremptory norms of international law, Zarif said, adding, "A widespread military attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran, a country that had just entered the stage of building the state following the Revolution…, is both a criminal and aggressive act. It has aggressive intentions and no justification.”