Zarif was speaking at the 63rd Pugwash Conference in Hiroshima.
He stressed that he was speaking not in any official capacity but as a private individual, a professor, and the founder and president of the non-governmental PAIAB Institute, dedicated to designing and building an inspiring future.
Zarif voiced hope for collective efforts to create a safer and more humane world.
Reflecting on the setting of Hiroshima, nearly eighty years after the first, and hopefully last, use of nuclear weapons, Zarif described the city as both a symbol of human folly and resilience.
He further noted the irony that the same countries now falsely accusing Iran of seeking nuclear weapons once supported Saddam Hussein during his war against Iran by arming him, including with chemical weapons, and ignoring his crimes.
