Transcript: NPR's Full Interview With Iran's Foreign Minister
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif talks to All Things Considered's Mary Louise Kelly in Iran about heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington after the U.S. killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Here's the full transcript of their conversation.
Mary Louise Kelly: Foreign Minister, thank you. Our time is short, so I will be direct. Does Iran consider the U.S. killing of Qassem Soleimani an act of war?
Mohammad Javad Zarif: It's an act of terrorism and an act of war.
It is both —
Both.
Terrorism and war, you believe, on behalf of the U.S.?
Yes. But it has three basically characteristics. One against Iraq. It violated territorial integrity and sovereignty of Iraq. And it also violated the agreement that they had with the Iraqis. And that is why the Iraqis decided to kick them out.
It hurt the feeling of many people across Iran and the rest of the world. And the reaction to that would be to make it almost impossible for the U.S. to continue to stay in
