On Oct. 1, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told the Council on Foreign Relations that Iran was not seeking a nuclear weapon because it would only increase regional tensions and threats to Iran. He also warned against intervention in Syria, but criticized the regime of President Bashar Assad for early missteps. The following are excerpts from his talk.
On Iran’s Nuclear Program
Had Iran chosen to go nuclear in the sense of weaponization…it would attract more threats and invite more threats from the other side. Because suppose we wanted to go nuclear and manufacture one or two rudimentary bombs, who is on the other side? It’s not India and Pakistan. Seemingly, it is Iran and the United States...
If a country, any country, including Iran, uses weapons of mass destruction, that is the end of the validity, eligibility, legality of that government…It is something that is not at all acceptable. Therefore, if your hypothesis, God forbid, ever materializes, I think nobody can justify it anymore; Nobody can go along with anybody who has been involved in such …inhuman acts.
On nuclear talks with the world’s major powers
Each time that the two sides came close to some kind of understanding, mutual understanding, somehow it was disrupted…a phantom-third party has disrupted this. But we have not lost hope.
On Syria
We wish [the Syrian government] had taken a better position…in the outbreak of the uprising. There were some mistakes committed, but this does not justify in any way interference from outside. We are not in a position…we never think, ever, to tell the president of a country, ‘please step down.’
Our position was and is that political reform and change cannot be imposed by outsiders. It is illegal, highly costly, counterproductive and dangerous. It is outdated colonialism in new shape… Nobody needs new civil wars, sectarian conflicts, terrorist havens, a failed state and an international military intervention in Syria…
On the United States
We are against any kind of phobia, including Americaphobia… We have absolutely no animosity. The two people, the two nations have no animosity towards each other... But the slander against our prophet, you see -- what happened in Libya and compare the reaction in other Muslim [countries]. And of course all Muslims rose against this, but in some countries they went beyond the limits of what was expected in just announcing your dislike for something.
On the Palestinian Issue
So when we declare our support or express our position vis-a-vis Hamas or any other movement that are justice seeker, from our perspective, and freedom seekers, then this is really, in fact, trying to help stabilizing the region rather than destabilizing the region. We are looking at the core of the problem. This problem has to be resolved… everybody comes to the polling and are to identify the form of the government that would embrace all the ethnicities living in Palestine under one umbrella and live in security and peace.
On Iran’s Regional Role
All extraregional schemes that are based on the artificial threat of Iran and the Persian Gulf are doomed to failure. Iran is the source of security in this water outlet. I would like to emphasize once again that Iran is a regional provider of security. I wish to underline, a regional provider of security.
Click here for a full transcript of the meeting.