"…, we have been open to talking to Saudi Arabia either directly or through intermediaries," Zarif told Turkish international news channel- TRT World- through an exclusive interview on Friday evening.
Saudi Arabia is our neighbor, "we're gonna be here together permanently. We don’t have any choice but to talk to each other and we have been open to talking to Saudi Arabia either directly or through intermediaries."
About the issue of a nuclear weapon which had already turned into a challenge between Iran and the world powers, and talks on it led finally to the July 2015 nuclear deal, Zarif said Iran believes that nuclear weapons are "inhuman, anti-Islamic."
As the Iranian foreign minister stressed, nuclear weapons will not augment [regional] security.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Zarif underlined "Israel is the biggest threat to our region and to the world."
As for the regional countries' intermediary role, Zarif said that Iran has "never rejected any intermediary from the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif who came to Iran and we received him with open arms, and the foreign minister of Indonesia who came to Iran at the same time."
"We've been open to intermediate, to mediation and we've been open to direct talks with our Saudi neighbors," he stressed.
Asked about the role of Yemen's Houthis in the recent attack on the Saudi oil facilities which led to cutting to half of the Saudi oil production, Zarif said: "Houthis have in fact taken responsibility but we are simplifying the problem in Yemen by attributing it to the Houthis."
"If Saudi Arabia wants to be secure, the best way is to end the war in Yemen to start good relations with its neighbors and don’t trust the United States," the Iranian foreign minister added.
"…, by putting blame on somebody else they won't resolve the problem that buying weapons will not buy your security even the Americans on their money say In God We Trust so the Saudis should now say in the US we trust they should trust themselves they should trust their neighbors and they should trust well."
Talking of events in Yemen, Zarif said people have forgotten that for four and a half years people of Yemen have been under constant bombardment, children have been killed, have been maimed.
"…, most casualties in Yemen are civilians, a hundred thousand dead over 2.3 million people suffering from cholera something over 20 million people which is a large percentage of the population are malnourished.
"Now people who are under this severe attack are expected to simply stay quiet," and not respond to the killing of the innocent people, Zarif stressed.
Then, Zarif compared attack on Saudi oil facilities and massacre of Yemeni people, asking why for four and a half years the world was quiet about the atrocities in Yemen, so people are less important than oil because not a single individual was killed in this.
Referring to the baseless accusations made by the United States against Iran after the Aramco attack, Zarif said they now "want to attribute this to Iranians because they want to forget about the fact that they've been basically massacring Yemenis [and] committing war crimes against Yemen."
About the recent attack on the Saudi oil facilities, the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in late September that it was disgraceful for the US to make baseless accusations about the issue while it claims it enjoys modern radars and equipment, but it could not find the source of the attack.
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