Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Zarif reiterated Sunday that Iran was not responsible for the attack on the two oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, saying “it wasn’t Iran.”
In an interview on CBS network, Zarif said “the fact of the matter is that the Houthis have accepted responsibility for that. If it were a false flag operation, if somebody else did it, then they should look for that culprit. It wasn’t Iran.”
He added “it is difficult for the United States to explain why its state of the art equipment was not able to intercept these weapons.” He stressed “I’m confident that Iran did not play a role. I’m confident that anybody who conducts an impartial investigation will reach that conclusion.”
Asked if Iran would accept the results of the UN investigators, he responded “no, we will accept the results of an impartial investigation.” “We are confident that if the United Nations carries out an impartial investigation the outcome will be that it was not launched from Iran,” he remarked.
He stressed “I’m not confident that we can avoid a war. I’m confident that we will not start one but I’m confident that whoever starts one will not be the one who finishes it,” noting “that means that there won’t be a limited war.” Regarding President Donald Trump’s willingness to meet with Iran, Zarif said “we’re ready to talk.
We’re ready to talk but talk in terms of something that is not going to be valid only for the next one and a half year or five and a half years. We need to talk about something that is permanent. That would last.” For his part, Trump told reporters earlier today
that on a possible meeting with Iran at UN “nothing is ever off the table completely, but I have no intention of meeting with Iran and that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.” “I’m a very flexible person, but we have no intention. It’s not set up,” he remarked.
