page_title: Mohammad Javad Zarif
section_title: Other issues
hierarchical_section_title: Mohammad Javad Zarif / Minister of Foreign Affairs / Other issues
caption_attribution_description: فارسی: Venezuela’s Top Diplomat Visits Iran - TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Heading a diplomatic delegation, Foreign Minister of Venezuela Jorge Arreaza held a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran on Saturday.
context_page_description: Mohammad Javad Zarif is an Iranian career diplomat and academic. He has been foreign minister of Iran since 2013. During his tenure as foreign minister, he led the Iranian negotiation with P5+1 countries which produced the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on 14 July 2015, lifting the economic sanctions against Iran on 16 January 2016. On 25 February 2019, Zarif resigned from his post as foreign minister. His resignation was rejected by President Hassan Rouhani and he continues as foreign minister.
  Before assuming his current position, he held various significant diplomatic and cabinet posts. He is a visiting professor at the School of International Relations and University of Tehran, teaching diplomacy and international organizations. He was the Permanent Representative of Iran to the United Nations from 2002 to 2007. He served as an adviser and senior adviser to the Foreign Minister, Deputy Foreign Minister in Legal and International affairs, member of the UN Eminent Persons Group on Dialogue Among Civilizations, Head of the UN Disarmament Commission in New York, and Vice President for International Affairs of the Islamic Azad University.
context_section_description: On 29 April 2015, while appearing on the Charlie Rose talk-show, Zarif was asked about the detention of Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post reporter held in Iran for the past nine months. He responded, "We do not jail people for their opinions[.]"
  Zarif condemned U.S. involvement in the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen, saying the United States should be held "accountable for crimes against humanity".
  On 11 February 2019, Zarif met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut. Nasrallah thanked Zarif for Iran's support of Hezbollah's fight against 'Zionist aggression', and Zarif affirmed his country's "firm stance that supports Lebanon and its state, people and resistance".
  In an interview conducted by CBS News on 25 April 2019, Zarif said that he was the one who proposed Iran's prisoner swap proposal to the U.S. government in October 2018, the proposal having been unanswered by the U.S. side up till that time. He added that the U.S. government must prove its seriousness before any negotiations.
  Zarif condemned the 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria viewing it as a violation of Syria's sovereignty. However regarding the US withdrawal from Syria Zarif commented saying the US was an "irrelevant occupier in Syria", and said that Iran would be willing to mediate tensions between Syria and Turkey.
caption: Zarif with Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, 2018
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