Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has rejected the allegation that Iran has nuclear bomb ambitions, saying acquiring nuclear weapons would not augment Iran’s security, Tehran Times reported.
In an interview with BBC HardTalk’s Zeinab Badawi broadcast on Tuesday, Zarif said If Iran wanted to build nuclear weapons it would have built it a long time ago.
“We do not want to build the bomb because we believe that a nuclear bomb will not augment our security,” he maintained.
“If the Europeans are serious about a nuclear weapons-free Middle East, there’s somewhere else that they need to be looking and that’s Israel where they have at least 200 nuclear warheads,” he said.
On the possibility of a war between Iran and the U.S. under President Donald Trump, Zarif said, “I accept that President Trump does not want war but I know that there are people in his administration who are crazy with war who search for war.”
“I don’t think I need to mention, the President Trump himself has mentioned,” he said when the BBC reporter asked if he meant U.S. national security adviser John Bolton.
On a recent downing of an American drone by Iranian military in the Persian Gulf, he said, “We are protecting our territorial waters.”
