Javad Zarif Shares His Forecast about Israel, Iran, Russia and the World

Iran's former foreign Minister Javad Zarif who was instrumental, together with John Kerry and Federica Mogherini, in signing The Iran nuclear agreement (formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA) has shared his take on the current Israel-Palestine conflict and Iran's alliance with Russia in two recent speeches.

In a recent speech in Jamaran, Zarif (starting on minute marker 13 in the original video which is in Persian) says: "Israel's diplomatic and public relations strategy since its inception has revolved around 2 major axes:... (continued below the video)

".. Victimhood and Invincibility... Although these messages are contradictory, Zionist leaders have integrated these messages through the NEVER AGAIN propaganda, which tells the world Israel is such a powerful invincible militant state because otherwise it would lead to Jews becoming victims again as in Holocaust [Zarif implicitly references the secular/atheist roots of Israel's founding father].. The recent attack by Hamas undermined both tenets of Israel's international propaganda and showed the world that Israeli is neither a victim (after bombing Gaza civilians) nor invincible. Having lost all her international credibility, Israel is now trying hard to drag the US and Iran into a war in the broader region to save her own neck and neutralize her PR defeat."

In part of his speech, Zarif stated: "Despite pressures by Israel to attack Iran, the US invaded Iraq instead because they were sure of Saddam's weak domestic and international support. Saddam lacked popular support and was internationally isolated." Zarif's statement seems to be sarcasm directed to Iran's conservative leadership, by drawing a parallel between weak domestic and international positions of Saddam Hussein and Iran's current regime. Zarif supports better relations with the world (including America) and has spoken against the militant approach of the Iranian government and IRGC.

In his earlier speech this year to Iran's Humanities Association, Zarif criticized hardliners' unconditional allegiance to a global alliance with Russia or any other country because in his words:

"By 2004, having realized the hefty costs of military incursions, Americans became more war-averse. Israel and America have since focused on a new propaganda (soft) war against Iran, Russia and China to isolate these countries by showing them as "security" threats to the world and humanity [and increase the cost of doing business with these countries]. For example, Netanyahu has said since 1992 that Iran is within six months from a nuclear bomb and he keeps repeating it! And sadly some of our [zealous, fanatical] friends inside Iran are assisting Netanyahu's fear-mongering by boasting about Iran's capabilities in nuclear warfare."

"Countries now form alignments, and not alliances, based on strategic goals. China has adopted a Commerce, Manufacturing and innovation strategy. Russians have pinned their global strategy on energy sales and dominance with the assistance of countries like Turkey. That is why they opposed Iran's uranium enrichment for our power plants. So Russians may look at Iran as allies in some areas but not in others. Their foreign policy is not all about alliance with Iran. And other countries are no different. As I have written before, there are no more forever loyalties and alliances in the world. There are just local, strategic, temporary alignments. That's why China resists sending weapons unconditionally to Russians... and tragically some of our Iranian friends still think Russia is our unconditional global ally. I am not anti-Russian. I have traveled there many times and believe it's not beneficial for Iran to be adversarial to Russia or even to the US. Of course, we are against American hegemony but that's why we cannot form unconditional alliances with any country. The Multi-polar world is here to stay. No country, including China, now has enough power to hegemonize the world. Saudi Arabia now aligns itself in some strategic arenas with Russians, sometimes with Americans, and yet in some other areas with China, and sometimes with global corporations or people like Bill gates. Loyalties are now network based and not long-term strategic allegiance to a single power... Today it's as dangerous to be adversarial to America as it is to be a puppet to America. I have hope that it's not too late for our countrymen to realize these new world paradigms."

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