Former Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif said on Monday that the United States failed to humiliate Iran in a June war and that only earnest negotiations could resolve the impasse between the two adversaries.
Speaking at a conference in Hiroshima in Japan on Monday, Zarif said Iran’s resilience in the face of military and economic pressure had shown that “the era of hit and run is over.”
“A superpower that spends over $800 billion a year on its military could not humiliate Iran, which allocates less than $10 billion to defense,” Zarif said.
“In fact, that superpower was compelled to evacuate all personnel from its military bases surrounding Iran before daring to launch reckless bombings against Iran’s safeguarded facilities.”
US talks with Tehran over its disputed nuclear program began earlier this year with a 60-day ultimatum. On the 61st day, June 13, Israel launched a surprise military campaign which was capped with US strikes on June 22 targeting key nuclear sites in Esfahan, Natanz and Fordow.
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and has called the attacks illegal.
Zarif said decades of sanctions, cyberattacks, and assassinations had failed to force Iran to capitulate, arguing that the country’s nuclear program was rooted in “dignity, not deterrence.”
He said Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s insistence on continuing the program stemmed from “resistance to submission."
“For him (Khamenei), it has always been about something far more profound and enduring: dignity,” Zarif said.
Iran's 86-year-old ruler appeared to double down on his hard line against a rapprochement with Washington on Monday, saying the United States must quit military bases in the region and sever ties with Israel to mend fences with Iran.
The former Iranian chief negotiator urged the United States to “set aside the illusion of demanding Iran’s unconditional surrender” and instead engage in “genuine negotiations” to ensure the program remains peaceful.
Zarif called for reviving diplomacy through initiatives he said he had proposed to promote peaceful nuclear cooperation and rebuild trust with the West.
“One practical step that I proposed in a recent Foreign Policy essay could be a US–Iran non-aggression pact,” Zarif said. “Another initiative that a colleague and I proposed in The Guardian a couple of months ago is the Middle East Network for Atomic Research and Advancement, or MENARA — a collaborative regional network dedicated to non-proliferation while harnessing peaceful nuclear cooperation.”
The United States has demanded Iran renounce domestic uranium enrichment while Tehran maintains its nuclear program is an international right.
Zarif said the network would include “an enrichment consortium bringing together existing capabilities into a collective peaceful and transparent effort,” adding that it would be open to all Middle Eastern countries willing to renounce nuclear weapons and accept strict safeguards.
