Tehran: Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, is a seasoned diplomat with an easy charm, but does not mince his words when it comes to expressing disappointment with India for giving in to US diktats on sanctions. He spoke of the “global strategic mistake’’ in complying with President Donald Trump’s orders.

He warned India that it could one day become a target, much like other countries that resisted “US hegemony”. China and Russia were now targets. Asked if a broad alliance was shaping up consisting of China, Russia and Iran against the US, Zarif said that there was no alliance as such, but acknowledged there is understanding and commonality between nations wanting to oppose American hegemony. India was not part of this as Trump was wooing Narendra Modi to win him votes, he said, in an obvious light-hearted reference to the ‘Howdy Modi’ extravaganza in Texas.

Though Indian officials like to say that Iran understands New Delhi’s compulsions, it is unlikely that political ties will remain unaffected. Zarif did not say so, but Tehran will remember that India did not stand by Iran.

Despite a US waiver on Chabahar, the work is already being affected by the crippling sanctions that make procuring machinery and other equipment difficult. Chabahar is of strategic interest to India as it opens up Afghanistan and the Central Asian Republics to the Indian market. Iran is also part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Also read | Kashmir: I&B Ministry Directs Cable Operators to Block Channels From Turkey, Iran

The foreign minister was much more optimistic on the cultural and people-to-people contacts between India and Iran. Many in India, especially the older generation, can speak Persian. They continue to recite Sadi or Hafez or Rumi and other poets and mystics, indicative of the bonds that exist. “These bonds are very difficult to be broken by political alignments or short term global changes…So it is important to keep this communication going,’’ Zarif said.

India and Iran’s approaches to many global issues are similar. He explained that no two countries have identical views on everything and this applies to Tehran and Delhi as well. But from an overall perspective, “…we share more ideas and concerns and interests than the ones that divide us.’’

Here are some of the excerpts from Zarif’s interaction with visiting Indian journalists in Tehran.

You have spoken about Iran’s close ties with India. How disappointed are you that India has stopped importing oil from your country?

India has certainly taken a stand against sanctions. India does not accept sanctions unless imposed by the United Nations. So that has been encouraging. That said, of course, we expect our friends to be more resilient vis-à-vis US pressure. And the reason we believe that countries need to reject this pressure is that – if you remember high school, where we all had bullies. The bully starts with the smallest kids and goes on. The more you allow the bully to bully others, the more you put yourself at the receiving end. And this is the global strategic mistake that is being made. Countries want to be on the right side of President Donald Trump. But the bully is never on the right side.

On sanctions and its effects on Iran

I can assure you that with the toughest of sanctions, we won’t be destroyed. We have huge resources, we have huge manpower potential, in addition to natural resources, which is immense. We have one of the largest per capital number of engineers and graduates. Yes, our economy suffered from a shock…that is why within a few months of the US’s latest sanctions our currency lost 70% of its values and inflation was up many many folds.

That was a psychological shock when the sanctions were imposed in May, but it did not impact our oil industry till November. The impact on currency rates was psychological. Now we have absorbed much of the psychological impact. That is why now that we don’t sell as much oil as we used to in May 2018, we have regained 40% of the value of our currency since then.

Also read | A 20th-Century Iranian Intellectual’s Praise for – and Disillusion With – Israel

The intention of the US, as stated by its Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is to deprive Iranian people of food and medicine in order to compel the Iranian government to obey the US. So you have the effect and the intent, and that’s the whole range you need to prove criminal activity. That’s why I accuse the US of engaging in crimes against humanity.

In Iran, thankfully we produce 97% of our medicine, we only depend on the outside world for a very small percentage of the most sophisticated medicine that is not feasible or that cannot be done here. But for 97% of medicines, we are self-sufficient. We produce our own, we even export sophisticated medicines to the outside world and we export them at a very low cost.. The international pharma industry is not very happy with us because they are sucking the blood of the people. The global pharma industry is a huge business and it not a humanitarian business. Economic sanctions affect the economy but they do not produce political results. They only increase people’s resilience.

Sanctions have been imposed on Iran for the last 40 years and it has only made Iran strong. Let me give you a few examples. When we had the war with Iraq, they refrained from sending us military equipment. …We used an Iranian anti-air system to shoot down a sophisticated US drone. We did it in order to show that if you deprive us..for many years they put pressure on our friends and Russia to take away SAM 300 missile systems from us. We finally got it, but we depended on our own and shot down the American drone with our own missiles.

We want to co-operate with the rest of the world but we won’t lie down and die if they tell us that we cannot do this. So even this round of sanctions will make us stronger but it will be at immense cost to our people. As the government, it is our obligation to reduce the suffering of our people… Not because the country is in great need of global commercial transactions, but our people require an easier life, they deserve an easier life and that is why we are doing our best in order to achieve that.

Pompeo, as I said earlier, believes that Iran must heed the US or its people will have to starve. We won’t allow that. …We will find ways of selling our stuff and we will find ways of feeding our people. But that is their intention (to starve Iran into submission). And I don’t know which country in its right mind will allow the US the possibility of succeeding in this inhuman policy.

On how much oil Iran exports today

For this you have to ask the oil minister. But I doubt he will tell you. Iran will sell its oil and countries will continue to buy its oil. But the nature of this new business is the lack of transparency. One of the greatest victims of US’s coercive economic measurers is transparency…Gainers will be the corrupt who will make a lot of money because transactions will always be conducted. Iranian oil always has customers. Only difference is a bunch of people will make a lot of money – buying oil at a discount from us and selling it at a profit.

On US fears that Iran’s nuclear programme was destabilising the region

We never wanted to build nuclear weapons. Had we seriously wanted to, we would have done that much earlier, when we were under UN sanctions between 2007 and 2012, and there were no intrusive IAEA inspections. We had an agreement with the US and five other countries to ensure that Iran would never have nuclear weapons. For us that was not a big deal, because we never wanted to build nuclear weapons. Trump did not like Obama and did not like whatever Obama had achieved, so he withdrew from the agreement… It was not because Iran violated any of its clauses. It was because he wanted to walk out.

Also read | Why an India-US Free Trade Agreement Would Require New Delhi to Reorient Key Policies

If you want to talk about regional behaviour, then you got to look at what is happening in our region. Who supported the Taliban in Afghanistan, was it Iran? I am talking about 1994-1995 up to 2001, not now. Who supported al-Qaeda? Who supported Saddam Hussain when he invaded Iran? Who supported ISIS? Anywhere, can you find the name of Iran?

Ostensibly, the US fought on the same side as Iran, against the Taliban, against al-Nusrat and al-Qaeda. US allies were supporting these organisations. Only three countries supported Taliban and recognised their government: Saudi Arabia, UAE and Pakistan. We were the ones who supported the Northern Alliance (Russia, India and Iran).

On terrorism emanating from Pakistan

What is happening in Pakistan is not, as far as Iran is concerned, Pakistani-sponsored terrorism but basically Saudi-sponsored terrorism, using areas which are not in the effective control of the Pakistani government to carry out attacks.

We are engaged with the government of Pakistan and its armed forces to contain those elements. We will continue to work with our friends in Pakistan in order to safeguard our borders from cross-border terrorism. They (Pakistan) have complaints about terrorism from Iran, we have serious complaints about cross-border terrorism coming from Pakistan. We are hoping to resolve this issue by working together.

Seema Guha was part of a team of 11 Indian Women’s Press Corps journalists who visited Iran.