TEHRAN, August 14 - Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said “real security” could only be achieved through regional cooperation not overflowing armories.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - “US' proliferation of arms in our region is menace to regional security. Last year Iran—with ~1M men under arms—spent $16B on its ENTIRE military. Saudi Arabia spent 5X that JUST on arms. Overflowing armories don’t win peace—or even war. Regional cooperation brings REAL security,” Zarif tweeted on Tuesday.
In a recent interview with the Doha-based television network Al Jazeera, he warned against an arms race in the Middle East, saying the United States has turned the Persian Gulf region into a “tinderbox ready to blow up” by selling weaponry to certain regional countries.
“The UAE with a total population of one million spent $22bn, Saudi Arabia spent $87bn. If you are talking about threats coming from the region, the threats are coming from the US and its allies who are pouring weapons in the region, making it a tinderbox ready to blow up,” he added.
Source: Tasnim