FM highlights Iranˈs stabilizing role in region

He made the remarks in an exclusive interview with the editor of an American monthly, The National Interest, Jacob Heilbrunn in New York City on Thursday.



On the recent war against defenseless Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by the Zionist regime army, he expressed his opinion that what the United States and the West did to people in Gaza could only be called genocide by Israel.



He said this by itself is a good rallying cause for extremist groups such as ISIL.



In an answer to a question by Heilbrunn If there was a compelling reason for Iran not to have a nuclear bomb, Zarif said "there is every reason not to have a nuclear bomb. If you look at Iran’s security environment, in the immediate neighborhood—by the immediate neighborhood I mean the Persian Gulf—we are already, because of the size, geography, resources, human resources, military ability...we are the strongest. By far. Most stable country in the region. So we need to go out of our way to convince our neighbors that we don’t have anything against them. We are engaged in confidence-building measures with them. So, not only do we not need a bomb for our immediate neighborhood, a bomb, or even a perception that we have a bomb, will further deteriorate our position, because immediately, our neighbors will seek security assurances from outside. So what we consider to be a conventional superiority that Iran certainly has in the region, if we try for strategic superiority, we will even lose our conventional superiority.



In the larger security environment of Iran—that is, against the threat by Israel or the United States—Iran cannot imagine to engage in any type of deterrence, either directly or even through proxy, with these external threats, or extra-regional threats, through a nuclear device, because we cannot compete in that area.



Again, a nuclear bomb will deteriorate our security. And at the end of the day, let me just make one point, that nuclear weapons have not created security for anybody. Just look at what happened to Israel."