Zarif remarks on Quds Force envoys spark hardline ...

Summary

• Zarif, Iran’s former foreign minister, faces fierce hardline criticism after a video showed him questioning Tehran’s reliance on military threats.
• Zarif also said nuclear weapons do not create deterrence, noting that they had not protected Israel or the Soviet Union.
• A hardline daily, whose editor the supreme leader picks, said Zarif had damaged national security and aided the United States.

AI Generated Summary

Zarif, Iran’s former foreign minister, faces fierce hardline criticism after a video showed him questioning Tehran’s reliance on military threats.

The footage appeared online on Saturday. In it, Mohammad Javad Zarif argued that diplomacy and economic opportunity should come before confrontation with Iran’s neighbours.

He gave the speech in May 2025, not long before Iran fought a 12-day war with Israel. Yet the clip surfaced at a tense moment, with a US blockade squeezing the economy and fears of renewed conflict growing.

Zarif questions Iran’s security approach

In the video, Zarif drew a direct contrast between seeing nearby states as threats and seeing them as partners. If Iran viewed the region as a threat, he said, its envoys “must be representatives of the Quds Force.”

On the other hand, he added, viewing the region as an opportunity would mean sending business people and diplomats. The Quds Force is the overseas operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.