Iran urges foreign countries to stop 'failed' pressure

'Report to your countries that you can’t tear apart the Iranians from their government through pressures,' Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told ambassadors, other foreign representatives and Iranian foreign ministers after the 1979 revolution in Tehran on Tuesday. 

Referring to recent reports by ambassadors to their capitals in which they have referred to the festivities of the 40th anniversary of the victory of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, Zarif said, 'Iran will be observing four days of national holidays.'

'You saw yesterday that these people are sticking to their revolution,' added Zarif in reference to the nation-wide rallies that marked the start of the fifth decade of the Islamic Republic. 

'How many of you had written in your previous reports that these many people would participate in the rallies,' the Iranian foreign minister asked rhetorically. 

He reiterated that foreign political and economic pressures have failed to make any impact on Iran. 'These pressures have a reverse effect because we are introverts when it comes to our security, that is our security comes from our people and this is the fundamental element of our authority,' Zarif stressed. 

He tried to hammer home this message, emphasizing 'believe this! You may be able to exert pressure on some friends of foreign governments but this has a reverse effect on Iran.' 

Iran foreign policy chief mentioned that preserving the people’s right is a national security requirement for the government. 'The Iranian people are the pillars of this government’s authority and preserving their rights is not only an ethical issue, but also a national security requirement. We don’t depend on anything else,' Zarif noted. 

'Iran doesn’t respond to pressure. We respond to dignity and respect, equal opportunity,' he highlighted. 

Zarif added that Iran is introvert and extrovert at the same time, explaining that 'it becomes introvert because of historical experiences that have shown that our policies were determined in embassies and capitals in the past'. 

'What is John Bolton thinking when he says he will celebrate 2019 in Iran?,' he asked in a rhetorical question, referring to previous comments by the US President's National Security Advisor about the fall of the Iranian government. 

He also refuted claims that Iran only supports Shia nations, saying “before any other member states of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council, we condemned Iraq’s attack on Kuwait. We were all night awake accompanying the Turkish government when there was a foreign-backed coup going on there. When Qatar was besieged by Saudi Arabia, we opened our sky to them despite our concerns about some of its government’s policies. Were Kuwait, Turkey or Qatar Shia countries?”