Transcript: Iran foreign ministers remarks at Munich Security Conference
February 8 at 5:35 PM
Here is a full transcript of the session at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday in which David Ignatius of The Washington Post interviewed Mohammad Javad Zarif, Irans foreign minister:
David Ignatius: Its my pleasure to moderate this discussion today with Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is Irans foreign minister, chief negotiator in the nuclear talks with the group variously known as the EU3+3 or the P5+1. But, by whatever name, one of the most important diplomatic negotiations of my lifetime.
So, lets get down to business. Dr. Zarif, its been written in the newspapers that you met yesterday with Secretary [John F.] Kerry here. Theres talk that you may actually be meeting again today for another meeting. And so I want to ask you in the way that Americans like to say, hows it going?
Mohammad Javad Zarif: First of all, let me say hello to everybody and its a great pleasure to be here. And, David, its good to have to share this podium with you today.
Actually we already met. Were both early birds, so we met from 7 to 9 this morning. It indicates how much importance we attach to this process. We already met once as I arrived on Friday. And we met once today, and in the course of yesterday I had meetings with other members of E3+3 Germany, U.K. and Russia. And Ill meet [French Foreign Minister] Laurent Fabius after this meeting. We are engaged in a very serious discussion.
The objective as [EU foreign affairs chief] Federica Mogherini just pointed out is rather clear. We set it out in the plan of action that we adopted historic in my view in Geneva in November of 2013 and that is the two objectives, which, in my view, is a singular objective, to make sure that Irans nuclear program remains exclusively peaceful. That means that Iran should, in fact, be able to exercise its right to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, because without it exercising that right, its impossible to make sure that its peaceful.
And secondly, to make sure that its peaceful. And by that it means that all the restrictions that have been imposed on Iran through sanctions, which we consider unacceptable, to be lifted. And it is important to recognize the fact that we need to move in this direction simultaneously. That is, as Iran takes steps to reassure the international community that its program remains peaceful and the reason I use the word reassure is that over the last 10 years or more, Iran has been the subject of more IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] inspections than probably any other country on the face of the Earth, and the IAEA has yet to find a single evidence that Irans program is anything but peaceful. So, we are prepared to reassure the international community it seems that quite a bit of reassurance is needed for some of our negotiating partners, at least. But, at the same time, it is important that restrictions that have been imposed on the Iranian people be lifted. These restrictions did not achieve their intended result.
You know that once, when the sanctions were imposed on Iran, Iran had less than 200 centrifuges. If the objective of the sanctions was to prevent Iran from developing its nuclear technology, they utterly failed because now we have 20,000 centrifuges. So we need to find another way, and I believe the E3+3 have come to realize that the only way to resolve this issue is through negotiations. And we have made quite a bit of success, and we make progress over the past many months.
DI: So, so let me ask you. Knowing now that you got up early and had breakfast with Secretary Kerry for yet another round of discussions. Come back to that. How its going, and let me rephrase that. What would you say, as of this morning, after the latest, meeting are the principal remaining obstacles to completing the comprehensive agreement that was outlined in the JPOA [joint plan of action]?
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Transcript: Iran foreign ministers remarks at Munich Security Conference