The followings is the full text of the interview:
Dear Dr. Zarif, the honored Foreign Minister; congratulations on the new year and the anniversary of the appointment of the holy prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.) to prophethood. As Ayatollah Khamenei remarked during his statements on the occasion of Nowruz—the Persian New Year—held annually at the holy shrine of Imam Ridha (as) in the city of Mashhad, regarding the JCPOA, the Europeans should have resisted the U.S., but on the pretext of various excuses, they did not resist. Moreover, even though they frequently insist that we should keep abiding by the JCPOA, they have in practice left the deal themselves. This is while they have gone as far as imposing new sanctions against Iran. According to the Supreme Leader’s remarks, on the JCPOA Europe has betrayed us once again; so we cannot trust them and expect them [to act honestly]. Now, would you please tell us about your opinion on the behavior of European governments and the Islamic Republic’s diplomatic plans in response?
In the Name of God, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.
I would also like to congratulate you on the New Year and the anniversary of the appointment of the holy prophet of Islam (p.b.u.h.) to prophethood. From the beginning, the Europeans viewed the JCPOA as an achievement. However, they might not be prepared, and surely lack enough power to resist the U.S. sanctions. They made some efforts, but as the Supreme Leader of the Revolution has also mentioned, their efforts were not sufficient. In some instances, we can even say these efforts show the unpreparedness of the Europeans for working on an area which they claim has strategic importance for them. So the Leader of the Islamic Revolution pointed out to this fact since the U.S. left the JCPOA.
As it was necessary for us to obligate Europeans to abide by their commitments, we continued to work with the Europeans in the diplomatic dimension, and we will continue to do so; however, we have never placed our hope on Europe. That is why in recent years even at the beginning of the JCPOA, most of our relations—the president’s and my visits—have been with neighboring countries, with the countries that were old partners of Iran; like Russia, China, Turkey, Iraq, and we have focused on these regions for our future foreign relations, too. Since the beginning of the eleventh administration, in particular after the U.S. left the JCPOA, we have focused our attention on the countries that are close to us and have sided with us; if I want to avoid the term ‘friend’, I’d say they have been cooperative with us.
We will continue to pressure Europeans to abide by their commitments. Europe should know that they cannot avoid their responsibilities by simply making some comments or some projects that are never realized. Thus, our responsibility, as the diplomatic entity, is to follow up on the Europeans’ works, remind them, and pressure them to abide by their obligations. Yet, we should never place hope on them.
In fact, we should never place hope on foreigners. This Revolution and this country have been governed based on hope on the people and reliance on the people; of course, that hope comes after trust in God and reliance on the immaculate Imams (a.s.). If hope and reliance on the people were not there, the imposed war—in which the whole of the world supported the invasive Saddam regime—could have never ended to our victory and dignity. This is all due to the fact that, since the beginning of the Revolution, we have placed hope on the people and we have avoided placing hope on foreigners. This has been the key to the victory of the Islamic Revolution so far.
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