Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he believed no military confrontation between Iran and the US is imminent and stressed that accidents like lack of communication with Iranian forces controlling the Strait of Hormuz could lead to a conflict, ONA reports citing IRNA.
The Independent's journalist, Negar Mortazavi, released Thursday a summary of her recent talk with the Iranian foreign minister at Iran's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.
In the conversation, Zarif sees no possible war between the US and Iran as imminent but says that the lack of communication between the American ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf with Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), which is in charge of controlling the strategic strait on Iranian side, might result in a military confrontation.
IRGC, a major part of Iran's official Armed Forces, was listed by the US as a terrorist organization.
Zarif tried to highlight the consequences of such a move when it comes to the oil lifeline in the Persian Gulf.
The Iranian minister described lack of communication with IRGC as an 'accident' the other instance of which was the detention of US Navy boats in the Persian Gulf in 2016.
The incidents, however, were handled by Zarif and his then American counterpart John Kerry who were in touch directly following the nuclear deal that was signed with other permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany.
Foreign Minister Zarif had also told the media in the past, that he had the authority to make prisoner swap deals with the US, but the swap would not include Europeans, the Independent added.
Commenting on his interview with the Fox News in New York, Zarif argued that speaking to the other side is sometimes important, according to the Independent.
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