TEHRAN – Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said that Iran has no preference in the 2020 U.S. presidential elections to interfere in it.

“We don’t have a preference in your election to intervene in that election. We don’t interfere in internal affairs of another country,” he told NBC News in an interview aired on Sunday.

“But there is a cyberwar going on. The United States started that cyberwar with attacking our nuclear facilities in a very dangerous and irresponsible way that could have killed millions of people,” he noted.

He added, “You remember Stuxnet, you remember zero-day, you remember operation Olympic. So, there is a cyberwar and Iran is engaged in that cyberwar. Any war that the United States starts, it won’t be able to finish.”

It was first in July 2010 when the United States launched a serious cyber-attack against Iran. At the time, it was said that a virus named Stuxnet was used for damaging the computer systems that controlled Iranian nuclear industry. 

After that, on January 16, 2011, the New York Times and many other media published news about how Stuxnet malicious computer worm was jointly built by U.S., Israel, the United Kingdom and Germany. 

The Times revealed that George W. Bush, the former U.S. president, initially issued the permit for production of Stuxnet and then they started building the virus in cooperation with Israel. 

According to the official documents, Stuxnet was built jointly by U.S., Germany, UK and Israel, but Germany and UK may not have been aware what function the virus will have in future. What was certain is that Bush issued the permit for building Stuxnet and Barack Obama gave the permit for using the virus in 2009.

Zarif has repeatedly said that if the U.S. starts a war, it won’t be the one who ends it.

In an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation” on September 22, he said any country that starts a war against Iran “will not be the one who finishes it”.

He said the U.S. is “posturing” by sending troops and defense equipment to Saudi Arabia following the September 14 attacks on a major Saudi Arabian oil facility.

“I think it’s posturing. I think it’s all going the wrong direction in addressing this issue,” Zarif said.

NA/PA