In a speech to a joint meeting of Iranian and Indian business people in New Delhi on Saturday, Foreign Minister Zarif stressed that development of Chabahar under a bilateral agreement with India will also serve interests of other regional countries, including Afghanistan.
Progress in Chabahar will in turn contribute to development of Afghanistan, he explained, saying the project will even promote economic cooperation with Central Asia and the Caucasus.
He further hailed India as a major trade partner, voicing Iran’s willingness to promote mutual cooperation with the South Asian country in various fields.
Zarif, who is in India with a trade delegation for the 6th Heart of Asia ministerial conference, also delivered a speech to a gathering of Indian intellectuals in New Delhi, focusing on the threat of terrorism and its core factors.
In his remarks, Foreign Minister Zarif blamed the wrong perception of US leadership in the present century for major harms to West Asia.
The era of hegemony is over, he underscored, saying that the US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan prepared the ground for the rise of “humiliated and frustrated” terrorists.
The top Iranian diplomat also warned that extremism could not be confined to a specific region or a certain country like Iraq and Syria in the current era.