Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif insisted that the international community must choose between “security for everybody or insecurity for everybody.”
In a speech at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI; the Iranian top diplomat asserted in an veiled threat that “Global Security is intertwined,” and as such, foreign military presence in the Persian Gulf cannot prevent insecurity, at a time when the United States is waging an economic war against Iran. In his words: “No amount of foreign military presence (in the Gulf) can prevent insecurity in this region. Security is a common global commodity. We have to accept either security for everybody or insecurity for everybody. You cannot have an island of security by your fleet in the Persian Gulf when the United States is waging an economic war against Iran. When the United States is forcing countries to seize our ships in Gibraltar, in the Suez Canal, in Singapore. That’s insecurity. Global security is intertwined.”
The comments made by Minister Zarif essentially echoed a statement that was made by from Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who declared in a televised address that “World powers know that in the case that oil is completely sanctioned and Iran’s oil exports are brought down to zero, international waterways can’t have the same security as before.” Therefore, Khamenei stressed, “unilateral pressure against Iran can’t be to their advantage and won’t guarantee their security in the region and the world.”