Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Wednesday that the rise in violence and extremism in the region is the consequence of “wrong policies and thinking” of some regional countries.
Zarif pointed to the turmoil in Iraq and Syria and the atrocities committed by the self-declared Islamic State (IS) militants there and said some countries have taken advantage of violence and extremism and employed them as “instruments to further their common interests.” The foreign minister, who was delivering a speech at the closing ceremony of the Conference on World Against Violence and Extremism in Tehran, also said the international community and regional players have a duty to combat violence by “considering it a threat to peace and stability.”
The top diplomat noted that the recent acts of violence by terrorist groups, such as IS, deserve particular attention due to the fact that “they have combined ideology and technology to lead humanity to annihilation.” Zarif cited “occupation, repression, violation of basic human rights, domination and colonialism as well as poverty and underdevelopment as the tangible factors that have fueled violence.”
He added, “What the Zionist regime (of Israel) has committed over the past seven decades” has contributed to the rising level of violence in the Middle East.
