Mohammad Javad Zarif Quotes
It is important for everybody to insure that the process will go on, that the ceasefire will hold. Of course, there is no ceasefire against Daesh [the Islamic State], Jabhat al Nusra, and Al Qaeda.
Wright, Robin. "Iran’s Foreign Minister on U.S. Sanctions, Syria, and the Bomb." The New Yorker, Condé Nast, 25 Apr. 2016.
Labeling an initiative a “war” has generally been mistake for the reason suggested in this quotation. The American public expectation is that wars, once begun, must be won! Not compromised.
The Senator was criticizing President George W. Bush, who made a show of flying onto an aircraft carrier in combat uniform and then announcing the end of the Iraq war with banners flying saying “Mission Accomplished.” His announcement and publicity stunt was very premature as American military casualties continued thereafter.
Charles Wilkes, a Union Navy Captain enforcing the naval blockade of the South, intercepted a British mail ship in the Caribbean and discovered two Confederate diplomats on board. He took them into custody to the cheers of Congress. England, however, was outraged that passengers—diplomats—on one of their ships was seized after boarding. This was technically an act of war. Abraham Lincoln, to the distress of many in Congress ordered the Confederate diplomats released explaining with this quotation.
During the Seminole War, Ross, as a very respected Cherokee Chief and leader, had been asked to persuade some if the Seminole Chief’s to come to a conference to discuss and negotiate a settlement to the conflict. Ross was successful . Seminole Chief Micanopy, twelve other chieftains, and a number of Seminole warriors accompanied the Cherokee deputation to the headquarters of the United States Army at Fort Mellon, where they were to discuss the matter. When they arrived General Thomas Jesup arrested the Seminoles instead of negotiating. Ross, a very educated man who was literate in English, o the Secretary of War. Jesup in retrospect was one of the disgraces in the history of the U. S. Army was admired, not for his fighting or his lack of ethics, but for his management and logistics as the Quartermaster General. For more quotations showing Jesup’s character, see quotations 643611 and 643612.
President Lincoln and Several of the Commanding Union Generals had declared that black slaves were free during the midst of the Civil War under the legal theory that if the slaves were property of the rebels, then they cold be seized as “contraband” and removed from the control of those who had committed treason. The question was, what would happen to those now free Negroes after the war? Many Negro leaders were anxious that if there were surrender, then the status quo ante might prevail and the Negroes—many have who had fought for the Union might be returned to slavery. This speech by the Secretary of State alarmed them further. This is why the Emancipation Proclamation was so important and even that might have been overturned by a subsequent President. This is why Lincoln, the white radical Republicans and the Black leadership placed so much emphasis on passing the 13th Amendment.
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.
