Mohammed Javad Zarif, is an Iranian career diplomat,academic and current Minister of Foreign Affairs. He said in a speech that over 300 years Iran only defended itself and it had defended itself in a most violent way.
He also remembered the attack of Saddam Hussain and said nobody wants to remember it. He said: “When Saddam Hussain attacked Iran everybody provided him with weapons, nobody provided Iran even with the means of defense and you ask us why we develop our missiles? Then how we defend ourselves? What are the means that are left for Iranto defend itself?
Today we have Resolution 2231, which does not make Iran for just call upon Iran it’s no longer mandatory, not to produce missiles that are designed to be capable, he stressed on “designed to be capable” of carrying nuclear weapons. He said: missiles are the means of our defense.
If you are concerned about the military expenditures go talk to your Government not to sell so much military hardware to our region, a $130 billion worth of military hardware is being sold to the Persian Gulf region, which is a figure of John Kerry’s and the highest esteemed of Iranian military expenditure is $15 billion. He also said, we have the population of all those countries combined together.
If missiles are the means of our defense we are not targetting anybody but we target the one who attacks us so that they won’t attack us because we were attacked and everybody stayed quiet.
We were bombarded with chemical weapons and everybody kept their mouth shut for 8 years. He said that maybe you want to forget it, but we can’t forget it. After he shared his own experience by saying “ I went to the security council in 1986 and told him Iran is being bombarded with chemical weapons and he said I can’t listen to you.
At last, he shared his thought about the work with the international community and said while Iran wants to work with the international community, while Iran is open to work with Europe to reduce the concerns and tensions in the region, believe me, we are not the one who has to gain your trust we both need to gain each other’s trust.
