TEHRAN – Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said Iran has successfully managed to bring itself to the core of regional security equations.

“When I took office in the eleventh administration (August 2013 to August 2017), we were not given a place in any regional security negotiations. Today, however, Iran is a leg of any security talks in the region,” he told the Khabar Online in an interview published on Tuesday.

He also noted that the nuclear deal, internationally known as the JCPOA, has made Iran indelible. “America feels if it violates the deal, it will become isolated…. Europe does not have to make a choice between Iran and America… and I think Europe’s economy is great enough so that Americans cannot put it aside.”

“We need to prevent Iran from being economically eradicable from the global economy. Previously they used to think because we are an oil producer this was the case. However, they not only put us aside, oil prices also plunged in the meantime. So, what is important is to enter the global chain of value. So we have to strengthen our economic ties with European and industrially developed countries in order to create cohesion.”

“We also need to preclude American efforts to disrupt the JCPOA on our account…. Although America’s hostility towards us did not lessen, their options were limited. The fact that while in the past they imposed a new set of sanctions against us day in day out but now they are limited to a few channels” because the JCPOA has “created limits for them to vent their hostility,” the chief diplomat noted.

Elsewhere, Zarif said although it may be thought he prioritizes improvement of ties with Europe over other areas of the world, his record shows he has paid more attention to neighboring countries.

“Less than 20 percent of my trips in the eleventh administrations were headed to Europe. This is while about 55 percent of my trips abroad were made to neighboring or Asian countries,” he stressed.

SP/PA