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Zarif: US must abandon illusions of Iran's surrender and turn to 'real' talks

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Nov 3, 2025

Tehran, IRNA -- Mohammad-Javad Zarif, Iran's former vice-president for strategic affairs and foreign minister, says it is in the interest of the United States to abandon the idea of Iran's unconditional surrender and move toward real negotiations.

Zarif made the remarks in a keynote speech on Monday at the 63rd Pugwash Conference in Hiroshima, under the theme "80 Years After the Atomic Bombing - Time for Peace, Dialogue and Nuclear Disarmament."

Referring to hype created by Donald Trump following the US-backed Israeli war of aggression against Iran in June, he said that Washington and Tel Aviv regimes not only failed to achieve their goals but also learned a big lesson from the attacks.

"I hope the United States will have the courage to learn and move forward", he emphasized, pointing that Trump's fantasies about Iran's nuclear program are not real as the US cannot destroy the scientific knowhow of the Islamic Republic.

Referring to Israeli and US attacks on nuclear facilities and nuclear scientists, the former top diplomat said the real potential lies not in centrifuges and enriched uranium stocks, but in the scientific knowledge, technical expertise, and innovative minds Iran have.

He said that Iranians also took the enemies by surprise with unity against aggressors and defending their country, demonstrating that they have both the ability and the will to inflict serious damage on two nuclear powers.

According to Zarif, the United States' goal should be to reach agreements that ensure Iran's advanced nuclear capability remains transparent and exclusively peaceful.

Reacting to the theme of the conference, he said Iran has always taken a firm stance against weapons of mass destruction, that is not symbolic, but strategic, as the Iranian nation has been a direct victim of WMDs during the 1980s at the hands of then Iraqi ruler, Saddam Hussein.

He said despite three decades of propaganda by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran's nuclear program remains peaceful as the country and its leadership never thought of pursuing nukes.

Four decades of sanctions, cyberattacks, and assassinations of scientists have neither forced Iran to surrender nor driven it to build a bomb, Zarif underlined, saying, "What has kept this program going is not military ambitions but self-respect. Even the recent unprovoked aggression by two nuclear powers has failed to change this reality."

It is ironic that the same countries that today falsely accuse Iran of trying to acquire nuclear weapons supported Saddam, arming him to the teeth, including with chemical weapons, and turning a blind eye to Israel's nukes and crimes.

While urging diplomacy, Zarif called on the government to stop considering the Islamic Republic of Iran a threat, saying the country should be treated as an equal partner in global affairs based on mutual respect, transparency, and shared prosperity.

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