Iran's Foreign Minister: Obama Was Right and I Was Wrong

In an interview, Iran's Foreign Minister stated that when he shook hands with the U.S. President, Obama expressed hope that this would not cause trouble for him in Iran, to which he replied, 'Not at all.' However, he acknowledged that Obama was right and he was wrong. Mohammad Javad Zarif, in a conversation with the Nowruz annual of the newspaper Etemad, explained that after President Hassan Rouhani's speech, he left the General Assembly hall and encountered John Kerry and Barack Obama in the corridor designated for heads of state and ministers, stating, 'We actually came face to face.' He added, 'Mr. Kerry introduced him to me, and I shook hands with Mr. Obama. The first thing he said to me was that he hoped this handshake and encounter would not cause trouble for you in Iran. I replied: Not at all.' Zarif emphasized that at that moment, he should not have allowed a foreign leader to think that this gesture would create problems for him in his own country. However, subsequent events in Iran showed that Obama was right and he was wrong. The face-to-face meeting between Mohammad Javad Zarif and Barack Obama took place on October 6, and after the news was leaked by the American media outlet Bloomberg, hardline conservatives severely criticized the Iranian Foreign Minister. Several members of the Iranian parliament shouted 'Death to America' in protest of Zarif's action during a session on October 8, and Alireza Zakani, head of the parliament's committee reviewing the JCPOA, stated that this action 'deserves serious consequences.' Hamid Rasai, a parliament member, also stated that Zarif should have 'turned away' so as not to 'shake hands with someone whose hands are stained with the blood of the people of Iran and other nations,' while Bahram Birarvand, a representative from Borujerd, said that the Iranian Foreign Minister 'made a big mistake' by shaking hands with the U.S. President. Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the judiciary spokesperson, also described the handshake with Obama as providing 'a platform for the enemy's presence in the country' and an act of 'espionage.' In another part of his interview with the Etemad annual, Zarif stated, 'In those few minutes, a very brief conversation took place between us, and he emphasized America's seriousness in implementing the JCPOA, and I said: I hope so.' Zarif mentioned that 'this brief conversation prevented Mr. Rouhani and Mr. Obama from facing each other,' adding that 'there was no reason for Mr. Obama to enter the General Assembly hall at that time because U.S. Presidents do not attend the hall when they do not have a program, and at that time, there was no program for Mr. Obama's presence.' Previously, in an interview with The New Yorker magazine, Zarif had mentioned the widespread internal reactions to his handshake with the U.S. President, stating that 'everything' he does incurs costs for him domestically.