TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s words to CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour were reminiscent of what he told EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini more than a year ago during the nuclear negotiations.

“Never threaten an Iranian,” Zarif had told Mogherini who had said the talks would not proceed and everybody had better return home “as long as the conditions prevailing over the meeting continued”.

When Amanpour asked Zarif that the Trump administration has put Iran “on notice,” and that Trump has said Obama was very kind to Iran, Zarif said, “Everybody over the past thirty-eight years has tested Iran. And they all know that Iran is hardly moved by threats. We do not respond well to threats. We respond very well to respect -- mutual respect -- and mutual interest.”

The interview covered a wide spectrum of issues with regard to Iran, such as the Syrian crisis, the U.S. entry ban, the work of the United Nations and the war in Yemen.

Talking about the entry ban, Zarif said, “You cannot find an Iranian who has committed a single act of terror against Americans. Iran has always condemned every single terrorist incident in the U.S. since 9/11”. He continued by stressing that Iranians are a very successful group in the United States, being “the most educated, the most successful in business and elsewhere”.

He said that “threats and insult unify the Iranian people” and “bring them out in support of their country”, referring to the mass presence of Iranians on the streets on Revolution Day.

President Rouhani paid a visit to Kuwait and Oman recently, calling for a ceasefire in Yemen. Asked on this, Zarif said, “We continue to believe that all countries in the region, Iran and Saudi Arabia included, have a stake in making sure that these conflicts come to an end, because in Yemen – as in Syria, as in Bahrain, as in elsewhere – there’s only one solution, and that’s a political solution.”

He stressed that Iran is prepared to work with anybody in the region to put an end to the fighting.

Amanpour criticized Iran’s support for Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria, quoting the number of “12 million refugees” fleeing the Syrian war. However, according to the official UN Refugee Agency numbers, around 4 million refugees have been taken in by neighboring countries and at least 7.6 million are displaces inside Syria.

Commenting on her criticism, Zarif said, “Mistakes were made in the beginning. But the worst mistake of all was to arm a group of terrorists who are not only a threat to Syria, but also a threat globally. The same people, who armed Daesh, armed the terrorist groups, were the same people who armed Saddam Hussein, were the same people who armed al Qaeda. We should not continue to repeat history and then blame people who were on the right side.”

He referred to U.S. President Trump, who said during his campaign that Daesh is a creation of the government of the United States, dismissing the claim that United States and their allies were supporting moderate rebels in Syria.

“Europe, NATO and elsewhere have not done much of a job in fighting ISIS. It was Iran who came to the assistance of the Iraqi forces. It was the Iraqi forces that were able to defeat Daesh in Iraq, with assistance coming from Iran,” he added. “We have a very serious policy. We believe that everybody should come together to fight these terrorist organizations.”

Furthermore, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu recently said that Iran’s missiles have “We must destroy Israel” written on them. According to Amanpour, Israel is right to be worried about the intentions of Hezbollah and Iran.  

Zarif discharged these concerns, saying, “We need means to defend ourselves. Our defense expenditures are a fraction of the defense expenditures of countries that are a fraction of our size or population or our territory. But nevertheless, we spend less than them on defense. We are entitled to have means to defend ourselves.”

He stressed that Iran will never use its weapons except in self-defense.