Speaking to reporters upon his arrival in New York, Zarif said: “There is a threat of escalation in our region, Iran is a country which is interested in tranquility, peace in this region we have proposed plans for ending the violence in Syria.”
“We proposed the plan to end the war in Yemen almost for one and a half year ago exactly when the conflict started in Yemen,” he added.
“We are still prepared now we are with our partners in the Astana process, Turkey and the Russian Federation have reached good conclusions, good outcomes in Syria there is not major fighting going on in Syria and that’s an achievement for the Astana process,” Zarif noted.
“Now we are on the verge of announcing the constitutional commission for Syria for they can start the political process,” Iranian top diplomat reiterated.
“We are interested in the same outcome for Yemen, he said adding: “I hope that those who believe they can fight Iran with the American soldiers would abandon that illusion and start going to the negotiating table so that they would find regional solutions that would be in their interest, in the interest of the people of Yemen and in the interest of the people of the region in general and even in the interest of the Unite States.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, Zarif referred to US fresh sanctions on Iranian Central Bank, saying: “Unfortunately the United States is addicted to sanctions they are running out of places to designate that is why they change the title of designations.”
“Central Bank has been designated for some time and now they change the title of that designation of course these pressures are intended to target the ordinary Iranian people, he stressed.
“Designating Central Bank means it makes it more difficult for Iran to engage in financial transactions even for food and medicine and unfortunately the United States continue to play that game,” he reiterated.
“They have tested that for off and on for the past forty years and they have seen that it does not give them the type of outcome that they are looking for.”
Regarding the impact of US cruel sanctions on Iranians he said: “Of course it puts pressure on the Iranian people but it doesn’t change policy, it makes Iranians more determined to pursue their policies and it seems to me that the United States will need to sooner or later have a serious reconsideration of their policy a sober reassessment of what they have achieved through pressure on Iran.”
In response to a reporter’s question on so what will happen if Iran does not negotiate with the US and also on the agenda of the current trip, Zarif said: “The United States is not all the world we are going to engage with a lot of countries the president will see a lot of leader.”
“I will see a lot of foreign ministers, I will see the Secretary General of the United Nations and I will see ministers in the region in continuation of my regional initiatives so we will see a lot of people,” he added.
“We will talk to a lot of people we will have meeting of joint commission of the nuclear accord on Wednesday at the ministerial level, we will meet with them individually with other members of P4+1 so we have a lot to do and also we will talks to the media and the think tanks,” he noted.
In response to another question raised by a reporter on UAE joining to US military coalition aiming to so-called maintaining security in the Persian Gulf, Zarif said: “We believe that if we want to achieve security in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, security will not be achieved through joining military coalitions whose nature is to bring insecurity and instability.”
“Security can only be achieved through cooperation in the region so we believe that our neighbors are deeply mistaken by joining forces they will not augment their security they will only exacerbate tension and they reduce the security. Those who are sitting in glass houses have to be very careful.”
Elaborating on the baseless accusations against Iran with regard to recent attack on Saudi oil installations, Iranian foreign minister said: “We made it very clear that they should not look for any excuse Yemenis have been targeted for the past four and a half years, their kids have been killed and maimed, babies have been killed and maimed, woman, children and the elderly were targeted, houses have been destroyed, markets have been hit and the international community kept silent.”
“The Yemenis defended themselves in desperation. People tend to be innovative and tend to be creative, people cannot understand why Yemenis can defeat one of the best equipped armies of the world,” he added.
“Hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons have not helped Saudi Arabia or the Emirates and if you remember billions of dollars of weapons for Saddam Hussein did not help him when he attacked Iran.”
“People need to realize that the resistance of the general population cannot be destroyed by arms,” he added.
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