Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue Forum in New Delhi, India, Zarif described the late Iranian commander as the single most effective force against the ISIS terrorist group
“Soleimani was the single most effective force against Daesh (ISIS). Who are celebrating death of Soleimani? Not ordinary people, but Trump, Pompeo, and Daesh,” he said.
“When they assassinated a revered general [Qassem Soleimani] in Iraq, violating Iraqi sovereignty, they thought, as Secretary Pompeo tweeted, that people would be dancing in the streets of Tehran and Baghdad. Actually he picked up a small gathering of a few and tweeted that we rid the region of whatever he wanted to call him, and then people are dancing.”
“That showed two things which are very dangerous and when combined become even more dangerous: ignorance and arrogance. And when you become an arrogant ignorant or an ignorant arrogant, it becomes a disaster particularly if you have a lot of power,” he said.
“Now you’ve seen the reaction not just in Iran – I was surprised to hear that 430 Indian cities, 430 Indian cities, there were spontaneous demonstrations and meetings to commemorate General Soleimani, the Americans’ ‘terrorist’,” Zarif noted.
“Now the United States talks about proxies. Do we have proxies in India? Are the proxies we have in Iraq numbering the millions (because millions came to the streets of Iraq to commemorate him)?”
“[…] you certainly cannot bring people, eight thousand people in Delhi, nine thousand people in Mumbai, you cannot bring them out by any proxy measure.”
The Iranian top diplomat said “the United States needs to think again about our region. They are making a mistake. They are adding one mistake to the other.”
