i don't know welcome to worlds apart there's an old persian saying when there is fire dry and a web burning together it may be an apt description of the call that 19 pandemic which affected every country on the planet but iran and the united states more than others again based new invisible alamy we should abandon so many things in our lives. so war and i'm tired i'm 18 well to discuss that i'm now joined by iran's foreign minister javad zarif minister it's such a pleasure to see you in moscow especially in person good to see you again you know if you are one of the 1st and very few dignitaries who are flying into moscow they

and i want to start you by asking how it has this been demick change the workings of diplomacy and you guys have some conversations like most of us or is it not particularly safe to exchange information this way well actually we have to do that and just this morning i participated in the meeting of the conference on interaction and cooperation in asia a confidence building in asia. video conference. some 20 more foreign ministers were participating in that conference and as you pointed out in your introductory statement. this despite us doesn't recognize ritual for the core strong or enemies it's affecting all of us and it shows that we need to come together in order to fight despite us unfortunately the united states. continues to prevent iran even from buying medicine and vaccine

to buy just buy will definitely discuss that in details but let me ask you one more question about the workings of diplomacy because from what you mentioned i understand that when it comes to you know making. public statements or prepared statements it's ok to do with online but the use still came to moscow for some reason is that because certain things that she sounds like have to discuss the only this is this is actually my 3rd visit to moscow after the corona. breakout so there are things that you need to discuss in person. of course we all use video conferencing as zoom or whatever other. platforms as out of a the book but it comes to a point that you need to discuss certain things in person now under normal conditions diplomat of your statue would be grounded for i mean i mean you cannot

be serious you can at the task that. has covered 1000 change and that i mean i are required to do you require your peers your counterparts to provide some proof of that i'm not being a health risk to others. we don't do that to diplomats in iran but and i was not subjected to any of those made an ad out in moscow no but in some of the countries they do some countries require you to go through at least a temperature check some countries require you to provide them with a test that was taken. no more than 48 hours before you go i will but those are much fewer china is for instance one of those countries that has very strict requirements i'll be going to china in a couple of weeks and i'm not going to be easy now iran. as one of the hardest hit

countries in the middle east some experts suggest that you are now in the grips of . a 3rd way if it involves a pandemic and many a high ranking iranian official site succumbed or even died from the virus i know that one of your closest. friends visors and friends and former colleagues sadly died because of it i wonder if you personally have developed any rules or chains to maximize your safety because you're in a high risk drop you have many interactions you're in the risk group for sure. we can only try to who. i mean keep the necessarily not social distancing both physical distance and in interactions with the mask and how do you do wear the mask because when you came in here you are you there is massive i do of the mask all the time and it's across the board and i've heard him ask all of my colleagues words about it is not as if i can i can be immune and they have to

now you mentioned before. there are difficulties where difficulties for iran in securing medical equipment and they were there even before the pandemic struck. how severe they are now and is it a factor in why. the pandemic effect of your country so severely. certainly the sanctions and economic hardship that the united states imposed on iran has had a significant impact. on 2 levels 1st we had to be could not keep people from going to work because not provide them bid subsidies with the extra subsidies we already do provide subsidies but we couldn't provide them with extra subsidies or incentives to stay home people had to make to earn a living again and the government's. coffers not that very. filled

so we need we needed to allow them to to end their own living this was this was the 1st decision that we had to make a very hard decision but the decision nevertheless that we needed to adopt and secondly the 2nd level is buying medicine buying the vaccine the united states 1st of all the limited. financial resources by preventing us from selling oil and secondly it is preventing us even from having access to our own money we have quite a bit of money stashed in countries abroad and those countries are prevented by the united states from even allowing us to buy medicine with our own money whatever the americans are saying about. sanctions not affecting a humanitarian items is just is just like we have been trying to transfer money

for the covert 19. kovacs the. w.h.o. axion we haven't been able to do that we've been trying to transfer money even for normal influenza vaccines the united states restrictions prevents us from even transferring money to to buy vaccines so it's. it's basically medical terrorism that the u.s. is engaged now you know in moscow for what i assume some sensitive conversation since you came here in person and i'm pretty sure that you are going to touch base here russian colics on the latest u.s. decision to re-impose arms embargo against your country not everybody except the united states agrees that it's illegal so we don't have to waste your valuable time on you know talking about the illegitimacy of that act i want to ask you and i want to get an honest assessment from you whether you think it would still be a factor despite being illegal does the united states have the means of imposing

not only imposing that ban on your country but effectively making it international will united states. does certainly have. a lot of. might financial might. in venet comes to preventing countries from getting beat each other and that is why countries are less and less dependent on dollar because they know that as long as they depend for their international transaction on u.s. dollars. basically at the mercy of the united states the americans can can impose. reeves on that 2nd point on this is this is a principle for us iran doesn't buy a lot of warms we're not saudi arabia i mean day per day spend $67000000000.00 more than russia did on on the military. we don't spend that much money.

we don't have that much money to spend we produce most of the weapons we need ourselves so we don't going to go to international markets. to try to procure weapons from here and none of the european countries even sold us weapons since since the revolution. so we're not under any illusions but this is a principle that there was an agreement to lift the restrictions and as russia correctly has pointed out we did not beaver not under an arms embargo there were restrictions we needed to get a permission from the security council to buy and sell weapons and now that restriction will be defeated in mid october and that is the most important thing if we need to procure weapons to buy weapons from our friends then the room no legal limits a well speaking of here or france and buying our arms from that. counterpart sergei

lavrov was asked whether russian arms for tracers will continue trading with iran he said that he could not give an answer because it's a private business decision and americans do have an ability to influence the calculus of press i want to ask you specifically what kind of reaction you're expecting from russia and china is the rhetorical condemnation and now. russia and china to delete in objecting to to the american measures before that better even the europeans i mean 13 members 13 of the 15 security council members twice wrote letters to the president of the security council once on the 20th of august when the united states if should that so-called want to be case in and once on the 20th of september when the united states claimed that is purported u.n. sanctions have come back rejecting it and that's what's important i think that's

the important point. just a diplomatic channel isn't out of a but i mean does a major diplomatic defeat for the united states isolation of the united states. verification by the international community of the legitimacy of the iranian position really which is an important achievement not. as for iran but for the international community for the rule of law no. contact at the military level with our friends those contacts will continue usually these are not broadcast live on television i see you mentioned the european reaction and i do want to ask you about the europeans because i think in russia now nowadays finds itself in a station similar to the one that they're on it was with the g c p a way because it has invested in the pipeline in the north stream pipeline and now it's c.s. the europeans having 2nd thoughts of paying lip service to certain ideas for the out actually putting any muscle behind it. can the europeans still be regarded

as this reasonable part of the west because they definitely are talking different talk from the united states but are they more reliable when it comes to international agreements and keeping their war it well as you just go directly pointed out north stream is is a very clear example that if europeans allow the united states to bully them when it comes to iran the united states can bully them when it comes to the lifeline and north stream is extremely important for europe as you know for germany its its most reliable energy source and it and the united states is even trying to intimidate clearly intimidate germany from from engaging with russia in that so i think the lesson that has to be drawn from that is that if you allow a bully to operate in these new lives no point and i think the europeans need to

realized now unfortunately up until now europeans have been doing a lot of good talk. on the north stream but not much much action i think. i mean we have a long history. and we are patient we know that the policy of the united states to the policy of the united states is bound to be rejected by the international community while i think some time but we have thousands of years of history behind like some countries with 250 years well i wish i had this long period of hysteria and this kind of absence but for the time being we have to take a short break so you're back in just a few moments stay tuned. oh

look forward to talking to you all. that technology should work for people. must obey the orders given to like human beings except where such orders to conflict with the 1st law. we should be very careful about our personal knowledge and the point of view is the great trust our governments here. very soon with artificial intelligence will summon the demon. must protect its own existence and.

welcome back to worlds apart that iran's foreign minister. minister just before the break or it's touched upon. your attitude to the united states and. there is a bit more than a month left until the next year's presidential elections i know that you say that iran doesn't have a preferred candidate but as a kind sure with a long tradition of strategic analysis i'm sure you have to foresee different scenarios do you think there will be a difference in the u.s. policy of his over your country depending on who occupies the white house next year but. obviously there will be differences between various presidents and various points of views i doubt that any one extreme views such as president trump but at the end of the day we need to look at the policy. not the personality in the

white house and i think the question that needs to be asked before even asking what the policy would be with regard to iran is whether there will be a peaceful transition in the united states if president by the means the election from what we heard from president trump yesterday there seems to be a bit more complicated question as ahead of us he said diplomatic contenders are also pretty and sure whether they're going to accept his victory so i think it plays for you know from both camps perhaps. let's wait and see i mean the other camp doesn't have many options president trump a sitting in the white house. for for a sitting president to claim that this country's elections are going to be rigged it's an interesting scenario to watch now he's contender are his competitor rather joe biden has already indicated that if he wins his

administration is willing to resurrect the jason p o a to which your country and your personal responded by rolling out preconditions and rebuilding trust compensating the damages which i'm sure you were here you know on the one star is what i want to ask here is. regardless of your feelings about the u.s. contact. is there an interest in the confidence of the deal i are interested in in substance or course we are we have said that bit or without the united states if you're on an interest. in the j.c. we don't want anything outside the juice if you we simply want what is ours what was bargained what was negotiated within the j.c. pure and it cannot be renegotiated. we simply want that if the remaining jacey pure participants can provide that we are willing to live with that we gave

them. particularly dealer opinions over here to implement what they have promise they made 11 promises at the level of foreign ministers twice to us but they were not able to even start implementing those 11 promises not even a single one of them and then we started reducing our commitments to j.c. puree as was 4 c. in the j c p oh so that's the real dispute resolution make mechanism not the part of the war dispute resolution mechanism that the united states is talking about we are abiding by our obligations we are within the j.c. pewee and if. the europeans come back to j.c. and implement obligations and it's fine j.c. purity is alive disagrees he counseled proved that it is a lot the united states tried to torpedo this resolution sitting in a room the united states not only left the room but bombed the room try to destroy

the room now it has to gain a seat back in the room and that is not automatic i'm not putting any preconditions i mean you do not want to have a situation in international. environment where somebody can leave an agreement at bill and come back to it this doesn't work i was watching your conversation at the council of foreign relations and he repeated this wonderful of persian saying if your time is very secure provia brotherhood asked for inheritance and as wise if it may be the americans let alone trying don't leave by persian wisdom they have their own philosophy and for the time being it's a philosophy of taking what they think is there is by force no there's a loss of fear is what's mine is mine what's yours is negotiable absolute time and us all to feed off of it i'm willing to to succumb to. you may not be willing to

succumb to but how do you think what is the a factor of way of dealing with a bit because whether you like it or not you still have to live in a world where they still also feel you know is a significant mark well i think iran russia and a good number of other states are not prepared to allow this philosophy to become the ruling philosophy we believe in the rule of law we believe in the prevalence of international norms we believe that you when you sign a treaty you need to abide by it these are what we believe in otherwise we would have the law of return that operate like that and between ourselves but what about dealing with the united states we need to otherwise it will be a jungle and be not prepared to live in a jungle. so i don't think russia is prepared to live in a jungle i don't think china is prepared and i think gradually that europe will stop accepting these diktats from washington sitting here is

a little bit because our time is running out i know that you said before that you are not very impressed by the recent agreement that when israel and the united arab emirates as well as back rein on the establishment of full diplomatic ties why not . well there had been very strategic secret connections for the past 15 years these really ambassador in washington. no i mean put on twitter his picture you supplied the table. 'd of that and said i'm now happy that i can share with you a friendship that we have had for a long time so it was a friendship that they've had for a long time now they had a photo opportunity in the white house to help trump get reelected in florida that may serve that purpose but it doesn't serve people with minister personal or professional connection is one thing a full fledged state relationship is something else no diverse state relationship

there are state relationships these relationships they kept secret now they decided under trump's son in law pressure to make it public in order to help trump play in order to give him a diplomatic victory that he needed. with his dismal record of foreign affairs so that he could show something that it's not only about trying because israel is now offering its. newly found air france new technology vital technology investment up a change these deal also clears the way for the for the united states to sell more weapons to countries in your region is that the really that irrelevant for the interest of iran to minimizing the impact of that meaning of the moment a rising game pact i'm saying that this was. a travesty of justice for the palestinians but it wasn't a major diplomatic accomplishment these countries by persian gulf countries

by 25 percent of total global weaponry and they will buy more beer i mean what have they done with this 25 percent of total global weaponry that they get i mean this make it 30 let's make it 40 let's make it 50 what good does it do to say it doesn't bother you at all but it does bother me that our neighbors are trying to buy security they have been trying to buy security don't forget they tried to buy security from saddam hussein. and look they got with him they tried to buy security from the united states and they saw the united states simply just leaving them. in the cold without giving them any protection now they're trying to buy security from israel which cannot even protect itself against. palestinians now i think that badly mistaken they need to look inward the they need to look at their own people for

legitimacy and they need to look at their own neighborhood for security now there are lots of speculations of who is going to be next and non-answer donna. talked about as the next can trace your follow in the footsteps of the u.a.e. but everybody is definitely looking at the saudi arabia and i think. you can see some subtle signs that the public opinion is being massage for the formalisation of of was really really the yeah the formalization of what is already there here i mean saudi arabia and israel have been cooperating with each other for years and doing that in the open is that do you think that's a likely scenario of it actually happened i don't think it's important i don't think it's important i don't think it's affects the situation what is important is that or i mean they never help the palestinians any bit but we're still not only

honest. i mean the entire problem in the middle east is the trampling of the rights of the palestinian people you need to measure any development. with that yardstick whether it affects the struggle the resistance of the palestinians towards. continued occupation i do not think that saudi arabia u.a.e. or battery will strong supporters of the palestinian cause other than lipservice job i don't think it will have any practical impact on the difficulties in our region the difficulty in our region is because of expansionism of aggression and of boy relation of the rights of the palestinian people now. president likes to compliment himself on his. new york approaches to diplomacy and both his israeli and arab colleagues i willing to give him that i mean they're willing to

give him praise the 4 are while securing their own interests because i think they're not losing out there. i know that iranians are proud people but there is also a 2nd degree of satisfaction in taking your alamy for a ride trump wants a deal with iran here now that i know that everybody knows that why not let him having it on your terms is a principle that you want a deal that is not a photo opportunity we have 159 pages of a tease it's not a 2 page document that he can show in front of cameras and i think it is it is in everybody's interest i'm not saying it is only in our interests or only us interest it's a deep it doesn't have everything that we wanted it doesn't have everything that the united states wants. otherwise it would have been an instrument of surrender by

iran or by the united states well you cannot expect the united states to surrender you certainly cannot expect iran to surrender so i think president trump had what he means. you want he wants you call a trump you call a trump but it is the best that can be achieved and this is i'm not going to risk something that i negotiated i know how hard it is. i'm not just reading to i did out something that was extremely difficult to negotiate to evaporator just you know order to satisfy somebody is equal but minister with all due respect my question is not so much about the americans but about these railings and the iraqis do you think it's a good strategy thing it's a clever policy of securing your country's interests while giving your pardon there are adversaries something that he wants and at the end of the day afore all prescious that is not bad big of

a prize for securing and getting what you want why doesn't iran try something like that i don't speak for israel but i certainly don't believe that the united arab emirates got what they what they were their people had they gotten a bit talk to their own promise a lot you know well how this is our promises promises or boards of you don't think that israel will persevere that sharing technology is giving up the changes when the arab neighbors enter there. is really i'm sure you here believe that they will do that come on israel that our talent and the money we can get out of it are they willing to take they're going to buy that. i guess ok minister it's always a pleasure talking to you thank you very much for your time and best of luck and thank you and thank you for watching. next week on the world's apart.

breaking news on r.t. international media declares martial rule under general mobilization of the country's hostilities with neighboring as a base. and in the view of the week in office staff of the united nations russia's new code the vaccine for a. stage 3 of the trials here in russia one of our correspondents is among the 1st in the country to get the vaccine. this morning and i got a call from the creamy stain i am an ideal candidate here look this is your vaccine there's not much in there looks like a couple of drops ok i'm ready i thought it's right.