In an apparent reference to the Saudi crown prince’s mutilation of his critic Jamal Kashoggi, Mohammd Javad Zarif said any wrong move by countries will be condoned if they have friendly ties with major powers.
“If you have cordial ties with a power centre, all of your moves are justifiable and all of your actions can be justified, forgiven and even supported,” said the top diplomat at a meeting in Tehran commemorating World Human Rights Day.
“If you saw a person into pieces, still you can benefit from the biggest military agreements. If you use chemical weapons against people of a country, still you will not only continue to receive more chemical arms, but other weapons as well, and the other side in front of you which has come under aggression does not even receive defense tools,” he said.
“But if the following day the same individual attacks another country which is located somewhere else in the circle of international relations, that individual suddenly changes from an ally to an enemy and they spend $7 trillion to crack down on and topple that individual,” Zarif added.
He mentioned former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein as a case in point.
“One day, Saddam Hussein’s regime turns into one of the key supporters of an anti-Iran human rights resolution, and the day following [Iraq’s] attack on Kuwait, Saddam Hussein’s regime becomes the subject of human rights … and turns into a major rights violator,” the foreign minister added.
He also mentioned the Israeli regime as another example of a US ally whose actions are all condoned and justified.
