Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said in reply to US Senator Tom Cotton that diplomacy does not match acts of bullying.
“Serious diplomacy, not macho personal smear, is what we need,” Zarif tweeted Thursday in response to Cotton’s less-than-polite tweet who had called Zarif “cowardly”.
Cotton’s tweets called for a debate on the US Constitution, a day after the freshman Arkansas Republican proposed that the two meet in Washington to debate.
In response, Zarif congratulated Cotton on the birth on Monday of his son, Gabriel. “Congrats on Ur new born. May U and Ur family enjoy him in peace .@SenTomCotton”
Cotton’s fiery messages came after Zarif in a question-answer session at New York University referred to a letter drafted by the congressman and signed by 47 of his fellow lawmakers in which President Barack Obama was warned against reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran.
The Iranian foreign minister – in an earlier tweet on his activities in New York to attend the UN Review Conference on NPT and meet counterparts from P5+1 –wrote that he will reply to Cotton based on Iranian courtesy.
